Islamabad Mosque Blast Raises Alarming Questions as Pakistan Faces the Terror It Once Exported: Retired Colonel
At least 31 people were killed, and 169 were injured in a devastating suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Islamabad on Friday, once again exposing Pakistan’s deepening internal security crisis.
The powerful explosion struck the Tarlai Imambargah in the Shehzad Town area during Friday prayers, according to local daily Dawn. Police sources cited by PTI said the attacker was intercepted at the gate but managed to detonate explosives, causing massive casualties.
Confirming casualties, police official Zafar Iqbal told Reuters that several victims had been rushed to hospitals and fatalities were confirmed, though numbers were still being assessed.
The attack coincided with the visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Pakistan, adding to the shock and embarrassment for the country’s security establishment.
While no group has officially claimed responsibility so far, investigators believe the attacker was a foreign national with alleged links to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), often referred to by Pakistani authorities as Fitna al Khwaraji.
The group has been particularly active in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where violence and border tensions have surged in recent years.
The blast comes just months after another suicide attack killed 12 people outside a district court complex in Islamabad, and weeks after a bombing injured several at a cadet college in South Waziristan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has also been rocked by intense violence in Balochistan, where coordinated assaults by the Baloch Liberation Army and subsequent military operations reportedly left nearly 200 people dead last month.
Reacting to the growing wave of attacks, a retired Pakistani Army Colonel remarked that the country is now facing the same terror scenario it made India endure for decades.
“Interestingly, Pakistan’s biggest enemy today is not an outsider. It is homegrown extremism,” he said, adding that militant groups once nurtured for strategic purposes have now turned inward, destabilising the nation itself.
Security analysts warn that unless Pakistan confronts the roots of radicalisation and dismantles terror networks within its borders, such attacks may only intensify.
#IslamabadBlast #PakistanUnderTerror #MosqueAttack #TTP #InternalSecurityCrisis #TerrorFromWithin #PakistanViolence #BalochistanUnrest #WarOnTerror
