Islamabad imambargah attack victims to be laid to rest today

Funerals will take place on Saturday for some of the victims of a suicide blast at an imambargah in Islamabad that killed at least 31 people and wounded scores more during Friday prayers.

The attack occurred at Imambargah Qasr-i-Khadijatul Kubra on the city’s outskirts. The death toll was expected to rise.

“The attacker was stopped at the gate and detonated himself,” a security source told AFP.

Muhammad Kazim, 52, said an “extremely powerful” explosion ripped through the building as prayers were just starting.

Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, told AFP there was a gunfight between the bomber and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.

“The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh,” he told AFP.

He then “detonated the explosives”, Mahmood added.

Friday’s attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.

Suicide bomber’s identity

Sources close to the investigation told Dawn that the attacker — whose severed head was found at the crime scene — had been identified as a resident of Gunj, in the walled city of Peshawar. They said that forensic investigators tracked his identity through the Nadra database.

Preliminary investigation suggested that he was linked to the IS militant group and had travelled to Afghanistan multiple times.

The Peshawar police are also being approached to interrogate the family and the relatives of the suicide bomber and collect the other relevant details.

Investigators said that all angles are being probed in this regard, and geo-fencing of the area was being conducted to identify other suspects.

Authorities were conducting forensic sweeps of the crime scene, while CCTV footage from nearby cameras has been obtained to track the attackers.

When approached, a senior Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police official told Dawn that they were making a lot of progress in the investigation.

Another source said that raids were being conducted, and that some of the suspected bomber’s relatives had been picked up in Nowshera.