KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has reportedly claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide attack outside a court in Islamabad, which killed 12 people and injured at least 36 others.
The attack occurred around noon outside the District Judicial Complex in the G-11 area, a typically crowded location with lawyers and litigants attending trials. According to Pakistani officials, the suicide bomber initially attempted to enter the court premises but, after being intercepted by security personnel, detonated explosives near a police vehicle.
In a statement reported by The Guardian, the TTP said it targeted “judges, lawyers, and officials who carried out rulings under Pakistan’s un-Islamic law.” The militant group has waged an insurgency against the Pakistani state for years and, according to Islamabad, operates from sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan — an allegation the Taliban denies.
Pakistani leaders swiftly condemned the attack. President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced what Sharif described as a “cowardly terrorist attack orchestrated by India-backed networks.” He vowed to continue the fight “until the last terrorist from the Khawarij and Hindutva factions is eliminated.”
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsen Naqvi said preliminary investigations point to possible links between the Islamabad bombing and a recent attack on a military educational center in Wana, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suggesting ties to networks operating from Afghanistan. “Identifying the suicide bomber remains our top priority,” he told reporters, noting similarities between the two incidents.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif described the bombing as “a wake-up call,” warning that “in this environment, it would be futile to hold out greater hope for successful negotiations with the rulers of Kabul.”
The Afghan Taliban, meanwhile, condemned both recent attacks in Pakistan. In a statement, its foreign ministry expressed “sorrow and strong condemnation” over the loss of lives.
This is the first major attack in Pakistan’s capital since December 2022 and comes amid a surge in militant activity in the country since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Officials in Islamabad accuse the Afghan Taliban of sheltering TTP leaders and fighters who plan cross-border attacks — a charge Kabul rejects.
Relations between the two former allies have deteriorated to their lowest point in recent weeks, following deadly border clashes last month and Pakistani airstrikes in multiple provinces, including Kabul. More than 70 people were killed on both sides, among them about 50 Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations.
Although a fragile ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey on October 19 halted immediate fighting, but subsequent rounds of talks in Istanbul collapsed last week, with each side blaming the other for the impasse.
