https://arab.news/yhaxu
- Explosion hit crowded district court entrance in Islamabad during afternoon proceedings
- TTP issues denial as Pakistan links attackers to Afghan-based networks amid rising cross-border tensions
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday denied involvement in a suicide blast that killed at least twelve people and injured 36 outside a district court in Islamabad, hours after government officials suggested the attack was carried out by militants based in Afghanistan.
The explosion occurred at the entrance of a court complex in the capital city’s G-11 sector, crowded at the time with litigants and lawyers.
“As of now, 12 people have been martyred,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters outside the court.
A spokesman for the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences said 36 people injured in the court blast were brought to the hospital,.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the attack was carried out by “Fitna Al-Khawarij and Fitna Al-Hindustan,” terms used by the Pakistan government and army for the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad alleges operates from sanctuaries in Afghanistan with support from India. Both Kabul and New Delhi deny the accusations.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif reacted to the blast on X, saying:
“We are in a state of war. Anyone who thinks that the Pakistan Army is fighting this war in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and the remote areas of Balochistan should take today’s suicide attack at the Islamabad district courts as a wake-up call: this is a war for all of Pakistan, in which the Pakistan Army is giving daily sacrifices and making the people feel secure.”
He said the attack showed there was little justification left in hoping for a breakthrough in ongoing peace contacts with the Taliban government in Kabul that began last month.
Asif added that Afghan authorities had the ability to halt the violence but were allowing the conflict to spill into Pakistani cities, calling the blast a message from Kabul and asserting that Pakistan was capable of responding.
Shortly after the blast, the TTP issued a statement distancing itself from the attack.
“The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has no connection with the explosion that took place at the Islamabad courts on November 11, 2025,” the group’s spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said.
The court blast came as the army battled militants who had attempted to storm a cadet college in Wana, South Waziristan on Monday, triggering a gunbattle that left at least three people dead. The army’s media wing said security forces had eliminated two attackers and trapped three inside.
On Monday, Pakistani security forces also said they had killed 20 TTP fighters in raids on hideouts in the northwest border region: eight militants were killed Sunday in North Waziristan and 12 more in a separate raid in Dara Adam Khel.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded blame over the collapse of a third round of peace talks in Istanbul over the weekend. The negotiations, facilitated by Qatar and Turkiye, began last month after airstrikes by Pakistan and deadly border clashes that killed soldiers and civilians on both sides.
TTP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since then. TTP often claims attacks in Pakistan, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years.
The Islamabad blast came a day after a car explosion in New Delhi that killed at least eight people and injured 20. Indian officials said they were investigating the incident under a counterterrorism law. While Indian authorities have not publicly named a perpetrator, the investigation is unfolding against a backdrop of heightened regional suspicion.
The two nuclear-armed neighbors frequently accuse each other of supporting militant groups on their soil. Islamabad alleges that Indian intelligence agencies back factions of the TTP operating from Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan, a charge New Delhi has repeatedly rejected. India, meanwhile, says Pakistan provides safe haven and support to groups involved in attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, accusations Pakistan denies.
These mutual allegations fueled tensions earlier this year when a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April killed 22 people, mostly tourists. The incident triggered four days of cross-border shelling, drone strikes and limited air engagements between the two sides in May before a ceasefire was brokered by the United States.
Analysts warn that the latest violence in Islamabad risks deepening an already volatile security environment between the rivals.