Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday said the country was in a “state of war” after a deadly suicide bombing in the federal capital killed at least 12 people and injured 36 others.
Speaking after the attack, Asif said it was futile to expect any positive outcome from talks with Kabul following the incident and also accused India of backing Afghanistan
In a post on the Government of Pakistan’s official X account, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the “suicide attack” in Islamabad had “originated in Afghanistan, with India’s backing.”
Addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Speakers’ Conference in Islamabad, Sharif requested Kabul to act against armed groups operating from its soil. “Afghanistan must understand that lasting peace can only be realised by reining in TTP and other terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory,” he said.
Earlier, Asif described the Islamabad bombing as a “wake-up call” for the entire nation. “We are in a state of war. If anyone thinks that the Pakistan Army is fighting this war only in the Pak-Afghan border region and remote areas of Balochistan, then today’s suicide attack in the Islamabad District Court (Kacheri) is a wake-up call that this is a war for all of Pakistan. In this war, the Pakistan Army is making daily sacrifices and reassuring the people of their security,” Asif said in a statement in Urdu.
Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of sheltering the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which frequently claims responsibility for deadly attacks across Pakistan.
The Afghan Taliban have denied harbouring the group, but many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, straining relations between the two neighbours.