A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and wounded 169 others during Friday prayers at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, officials said.
The attack is the deadliest in the country since January 2023, when a powerful blast inside a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar left more than 100 people dead.
Eyewitnesses described the chaos that followed the explosion.
“We had just begun the prayer when we heard the sound of gunfire, followed by a powerful explosion,” a worshipper, Syed Ameer Hussain Shah, 47, told CNN.
“I got injured as well. At that time, the mosque hall was full, with more than 400 worshippers inside.”
Authorities said militancy has surged across Pakistan in recent years, though attacks in the heavily secured capital have been relatively rare.
A suicide bombing in Islamabad in November, which killed 12 people, was previously the deadliest such attack in the city in nearly two decades.
Security sources said early investigations pointed to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, but the group denied involvement.
“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s targets are clear and well-defined: Pakistan’s security institutions and their collaborators,” the group said in a statement, adding it had “no connection whatsoever” with Friday’s attack.
Images from the scene showed bodies lying in pools of blood inside the mosque, surrounded by shattered glass and debris.
The United States embassy in Islamabad condemned the bombing, saying, “Acts of terror and violence against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable. The people of Pakistan deserve safety, dignity, and the ability to practice their faith without fear.”
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari also denounced the attack, describing the killing of innocent civilians as “a crime against humanity” and saying the nation stood “shoulder to shoulder with the families affected.”
