Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, said the deadly explosion at a Shia mosque in Islamabad was a suicide attack and that the attacker had previously travelled to Afghanistan.
In a post on X, Asif said those responsible for killing worshippers in a mosque were “enemies of religion and the country,” adding that the militant involved in the attack had been present in Afghanistan.
According to Asif, Pakistani security forces confronted the attacker before he detonated explosives among the last rows of worshippers.
He added that Pakistan must eliminate what he described as “terrorist camps inside Afghanistan” and said the government would respond to the attack with full force.
The explosion occurred during Friday prayers, killing at least 31 people and injuring 169 others. Officials warned the death toll could rise.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s minister of state for interior affairs, said the attacker was not an Afghan national but had a history of travel to Afghanistan.
