Pakistan blames Afghans for Islamabad suicide attack

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Pakistan on Thursday blamed Afghan citizens for a suicide bombing in the capital Islamabad this week, and a separate deadly attack near the frontier.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told a Senate session that the bomber behind Tuesday's blast outside the district court buildings was from Afghanistan.

"We have traced the Islamabad blast culprits. The suicide bomber was from Afghanistan," he said, without offering any evidence.

"It will be decided on a government-level what to do," the minister told reporters when asked how the government would proceed with regards to Afghanistan.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the first to hit the capital in nearly three years.

A dozen people were killed and 27 wounded.

Naqvi told reporters on Monday that Afghan nationals also took part in an assault the same day on Cadet College Wana, a military-linked school in northwest Pakistan. The attack left three people dead.

The accusations come amid a sharp deterioration in ties between Islamabad and Kabul, with Pakistan blaming what it says are Afghan-based militants - particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - for a surge in attacks since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Kabul denies the charge.

Relations hit a new low last month after the worst cross-border clashes in years killed more than 70 people, including dozens of Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations.

"We have told them (the Afghan government) about our concerns but they still support terrorists," Naqvi said in remarks broadcast on live television.

Kabul has not commented on the allegations.

Pakistan's information ministry repeated the claims Thursday, saying the Wana attack was "planned and controlled from Afghanistan" and that all those involved were Afghan citizens.

"The identities of the Afghan terrorists killed in the attack firmly establishes the links of terrorists in their bases in Afghanistan," it said on X.

The TTP has threatened more attacks unless hardline Islamic law is implemented in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country.

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