Suicide bomber in Islamabad Imambargah identified as Peshawar resident

ISLAMABAD:

The suicide bomber who attacked Islamabad’s Imambargah Khadijah al-Kubra on Friday has been identified as Yasir Khan, a resident of Peshawar, sources close to the investigation said. Express Pakinomist.

The attacker detonated explosives just as worshipers were offering Friday prayers inside the packed imambargah in Tarlai area, police and administration officials said, adding that at least 31 worshipers were martyred and around 170 others injured in the blast.

According to preliminary information, Khan had stayed in Afghanistan for approximately five months before returning to Pakistan. Sources also indicated that he may have links to the outlawed Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) militant outfit, although investigations are ongoing.

Khan is believed to have received militant training during his stay in Afghanistan. “He remained in the ‘Mansoor Istashhadi training center in the northeastern Afghan province of Kuner and traveled to and from Afghanistan several times,” sources said. Express Pakinomist.

Authorities are continuing their investigation to uncover the entire network behind the deadly attack and to establish any possible domestic and cross-border links.

Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry also confirmed that the bomber had been identified. “He is not an Afghan citizen, but forensic examination of the remaining parts of his body has provided information on how many times he had traveled to Afghanistan,” he added.

The state television company PTV News stated in an X post that terrorist groups present in Afghanistan pose a broader regional security threat and claimed a link between Afghanistan and India behind attacks in Pakistan – a claim Kabul denies.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif blamed what he described as an “India-Afghanistan nexus” for the imambargah bloodshed.

In a post on X, he stated that it had been established that the attacker had traveled to and from Afghanistan and that there were indications of links between India and the Taliban.

He described the perpetrators as “enemies of both religion and nation” and promised that the state would respond to the attack with full force.

Referring to the May 2025 military confrontation between Pakistan and India, he wrote that after a humiliating defeat, India was now fighting through proxies and no longer had the courage to engage in direct warfare.