Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has said both suicide bombers involved in the two attacks in the country this week were Afghan nationals, as authorities announced having made several arrests.
Naqvi made the remarks in parliament on Thursday during a session carried live on television.
On Wednesday, at least 12 people were killed and more than 30 were injured, several of them critically, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the Islamabad District Judicial Complex.
The Counter-Terrorism Department in Punjab province’s Rawalpindi said seven suspects were detained in connection with the Islamabad blast. The alleged perpetrators were apprehended from Rawalpindi’s Fauji Colony and Dhoke Kashmirian, the Dawn daily reported, while a raid was also conducted in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
The other suicide attack took place on Monday at a college in South Waziristan, KP.
Cadet College, which is near the Afghan border, came under attack when an explosive-laden vehicle rammed its main gate. Two attackers were killed at the main gate, while three others managed to enter, according to police.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been severely strained in recent years, with Islamabad accusing fighters sheltering across the border of staging attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies giving haven to armed groups to attack Pakistan.
Dozens of soldiers were killed in border clashes between the two countries last month, as well as several civilians.
