At least 12 people were killed and more than 25 injured — most of them lawyers — after a powerful explosion ripped through a parked car inside the Islamabad District Judicial Complex on Tuesday afternoon, according to Pakistani media reports. Officials said preliminary investigations indicate it was a suicide bombing.
The blast occurred around 12:30 p.m. near the main entrance of the judicial complex during peak working hours, triggering chaos and panic among hundreds of lawyers and staff present at the site. The explosion was so powerful that it was heard up to six kilometres away, shattering windows and setting multiple vehicles ablaze.
Footage from the scene showed flames and thick smoke billowing from the charred remains of the vehicle, with police and emergency teams rushing to the spot. Several nearby cars were destroyed in the explosion. “As I parked my car and entered the complex, I heard a loud bang... I saw two bodies on the gate, and several cars were on fire,” eyewitness and lawyer Rustam Malik told AFP.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif condemned the incident, calling it a “wake-up call” and declaring that Pakistan was “in a state of war.” He accused Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government of enabling terror groups operating inside Pakistan. “Anyone who thinks the Pakistan Army is fighting this war only in the border regions or in Balochistan should take the suicide attack at the Islamabad district courts as a wake-up call. This is a war for all of Pakistan,” Asif said in a post on X.
President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the bombing and expressed condolences to the families of the victims, calling it a “heinous act of terror.”
The Islamabad blast came hours after Pakistani security forces said they foiled an attempted attack by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants at Cadet College Wana in South Waziristan. Two terrorists were killed in that operation, though the TTP later denied involvement.
The thwarted attack drew chilling parallels to the 2014 Peshawar Army Public School massacre, where TTP gunmen killed 154 people, most of them students. Pakistani officials said the militants in Wana had planned a similar mass-casualty assault.
For years, Pakistan has struggled to contain the TTP insurgency, which has intensified since the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad accuses the Afghan regime of harbouring TTP leadership and failing to curb cross-border terrorism.
Tuesday’s bombing also came a day after a car explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort, which killed 10 people and was linked to a Pakistan-based terror module involving Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH). Indian authorities recently seized 2,900 kilograms of IED-making material in connection with that case, raising concerns of coordinated regional terror activity.
The Islamabad attack has once again exposed the fragility of Pakistan’s internal security and the growing reach of militant networks operating across South Asia.
