A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and injured 169 others during Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, authorities said.
It was the country’s deadliest attack since January 2023, when an explosion at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 100 people.
“We had just started praying when we heard gunshots followed by a powerful explosion,” Syed Amir Hussein Shah, 47, a worshiper at the mosque, told CNN.
“I was also injured. At that time, the mosque hall was full with more than 400 worshipers.”
Pakistan has seen a growing wave of extremism in recent years, but attacks have become less frequent in the heavily guarded capital. A bombing in Islamabad in November killed 12 people, making it the deadliest suicide attack to rock the capital in nearly two decades.
An internal investigation suggests the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehran Tehran (TTP), was behind Friday’s attack, a police official told CNN. So far, no claim of responsibility has been made.
TTP is a Sunni Muslim armed group that considers Pakistan’s Shia minority to be heretical.
Images from the aftermath of the attack showed bloody bodies lying on the floor of the mosque surrounded by broken glass and rubble, Reuters reported.
The injured were lying in a garden in the semi-urban area of Khadijah Tul Kubla Imambarga on the outskirts of the city.
The US Embassy in Islamabad condemned the attack. “Acts of terrorism and violence against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable,” he said, adding, “Pakistanis have the right to security, dignity and the ability to practice their faith without fear.”
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said targeting innocent civilians was a “crime against humanity” and said the entire country “stands with the families affected,” the Associated Press reported.
