Pakistan blames ‘Indian-backed proxies’ for the attack; New Delhi rejects the accusation as ‘baseless and pointless’.Listen to this articleListen to this article | 3 minsinfoPublished On 7 Feb 20267 Feb 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareThousands of mourners in Pakistan have gathered in Islamabad to bury the victims of a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in the city during Friday prayers, an attack that killed at least 32 worshippers and injured 170 others, officials said.The victims are being laid to rest on Saturday as authorities intensify a security crackdown. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Peshawar city, police arrested two brothers and a woman during a raid on what they described as the alleged suicide bomber’s hideout.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listFriday’s powerful explosion struck the Khadija Tul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai Kalan area on the outskirts of Islamabad. The ISIL (ISIS) armed group later claimed responsibility.The attack was the deadliest in Islamabad since September 2008, when a suicide truck bomb killed more than 60 people and destroyed part of the five-star Marriott Hotel. While bombings are rare in the heavily guarded capital, this is the second such attack in three months, raising fears of a return to violence in Pakistan’s major urban centres.Al Jazeera correspondent Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said people he spoke to believe innocent civilians are being targeted.“They say this is a lapse of security, that the authorities knew very well that there was an imminent threat, given the fact that intelligence-based operations are going on in Balochistan and in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.”Hyder added that this was not the first attack by ISIL. “In 2017, ISIL attacked a shrine in Pakistan, killing over 90 people and wounding hundreds. They have carried out attacks not just in Pakistan, but also in Moscow a few years ago, and in Kermanshah, Iran, during commemorations of the martyrdom of Qassem Soleimani. It should be understood that ISIL has been a regional threat, and Pakistan stresses that neighbouring countries and the region must take this threat seriously,” he reported.Government promises justice, pledges unity against ‘terro …
