Several people are reported dead after an explosion ripped through a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad during Friday prayer, police said. “We have shifted several people to hospitals. I can’t say ‌how many are dead at this moment, but ‌yes people have ‌died,” police official ​Zafar Iqbal told Reuters.

The death toll of the attack has reached 31 and over 169 were injured in the blast. Dawn quoted Islamabad Capital Territory Police Spokesperson Taqi Jawad as saying that it was too soon to ascertain the nature of the blast. Forensics teams would need to determine whether it was a suicide or a planted bomb, Jawad said.

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Mohsin Naqvi condemns the blast

Images circulating on social media showed police officers and local residents rushing the injured to nearby hospitals. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the blast and directed authorities to ensure the wounded receive the best possible medical treatment as they were taken to hospitals across the city.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion. However, suspicion is likely to focus on militant outfits such as the Pakistani Taliban or the Islamic State group, both of which have been blamed for past attacks on Shiite worshippers, a minority community in Pakistan, AP reported. Militants frequently target security personnel and civilians in different parts of the country.

Rise in bombings

The attack comes against the backdrop of a recent surge in violence. In November, a suicide bomber struck outside a court in Islamabad, killing 12 people. It also follows a series of coordinated attacks last week by the banned Baloch Liberation Army in insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province, in which around 50 people were killed.

The military said security forces responding to those assaults killed more than 200 militants.