Islamic State Affiliate Claims Responsibility for Deadly Suicide Bombing at Pakistani Shiite Mosque, Leaving 31 Dead

ISLAMABAD – In a tragic turn of events, a suicide bombing claimed by an Islamic State affiliate rocked a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, resulting in the deaths of 31 individuals and injuries to 169 others. As mourners gathered under heightened security on Saturday, the mosque became the somber setting for the victims’ funerals.

The group responsible, known as Islamic State in Pakistan, announced their involvement through a statement on their Amaq News Agency. The attack unfolded as the bomber engaged in gunfire with guards at the mosque’s entrance before detonating an explosive vest near the inner gate.

The Islamic State faction justified targeting Pakistani Shiites by labeling them as a “human reservoir” for recruitment into Shiite militias fighting against them in Syria.

This attack marks the deadliest incident in Islamabad since the 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing, which claimed 63 lives and injured over 250. More recently, in November, a suicide attack outside a city court resulted in 12 fatalities.

The bombing adds to a series of escalating militant attacks that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration is currently grappling with. Authorities revealed that the assailant was a Pakistani citizen who had recently visited Afghanistan.

Authorities said several suspects, including the brother, mother and other relatives of the bomber, were arrested during overnight raids in Islamabad and in northwestern Pakistan, and that a police officer was killed in the operation.

More than 2,000 grief-stricken mourners gathered as coffins of those killed were brought to the mosque for funerals. Senior government officials and leaders of the Shiite community were among those who attended the funerals for about a dozen victims. Funerals of other victims were to be held in their home towns.

IS is a Sunni group that has targeted Pakistan’s Shiite minority in the past, apparently seeking to stoke sectarian divisions in the majority Sunni country. In 2022 it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that struck a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 56 and wounding 194.

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told reporters Friday that the attack signaled that Pakistan-based militants operating from Afghanistan could strike even in the capital.

His remarks drew a sharp response from Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

In a statement, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry condemned the mosque attack in Islamabad but said the Pakistani defense minister had “irresponsibly” linked it to Afghanistan. Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, of harboring militants, including members of the Pakistani Taliban. Kabul denies the accusations.

The attack also drew condemnation from the international community, including the United States, Russia and the European Union.

Prime Minister Sharif said he was grateful for the messages of sympathy and support received “from across the globe” following what he called a “heart-wrenching suicide attack in Islamabad.” He said international support remained critical to Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

Although Pakistan’s capital has seen relatively few attacks compared with other regions, the country has experienced a recent rise in militant violence. Much of it has been blamed on Balochseparatists and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is a separate group but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

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Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this story.