12 killed, 27 injured in blast outside Islamabad court in Pakistan
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters that the blast was a suicide attack and that police were currently investigating.
In Pakistan, at least 12 people have been killed following a blast outside a district court building in the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters that the blast was a suicide attack and that police were currently investigating.
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What do we know so far?
"At 12:39 pm (0739 GMT), a suicide attack was carried out," Naqvi said, adding that at least 12 people were killed, with another 27 wounded.
Naqvi was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the attacker had made an attempt to "enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle."
"We are investigating this incident from different angles. It is not just another bombing. It happened right in Islamabad," the minister said.
The area is normally crowded with people attending court proceedings.
Witnesses told the French AFP news agency that the blast appeared to have taken place near a gate of the court complex.
"As I parked my car and entered the complex ... I heard a loud bang," lawyer Rustam Malik told AFP after the blast.
"It was complete chaos, lawyers and people were running inside the complex. I saw two dead bodies lying on the gate, and several cars were on fire," Malik said.
Pakistan's tenuous security situation
Pakistan has been battling with a number of insurgencies by extremist and militant groups, among them the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the local affiliate of the so-called Islamic State, known as ISKP, and Baloch separatists.
Earlier, Pakistan's security forces said they had quashed an attempt by militants on Monday evening to take cadets hostage at a military-run college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
Authorities said that a suicide car bomber and five others had targeted the facility situated in the northwestern province.
"There was an attack in Wana as well last night," Pakistan's interior minister said. "Three people died in that attack. The attacker involved in that attack is an Afghan. Afghanistan is directly involved in that attack."
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