A car bomb outside an Islamabad court kills at least 11 people, Pakistani security officials say

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A powerful car bomb exploded outside a sprawling district court in Pakistan’s capital on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, security officials said.

The blast, which was heard miles away and also damaged several vehicles outside the court, struck at a time when the area is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending hearings.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion but Pakistan has struggled with militant attacks across the country and a resurgent Pakistani Taliban.

Two security officials told The Associated Press that a car bomb had caused the explosion and that 11 people were killed. They spoke condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

Earlier, Pakistan TV said at least 13 people were also injured in the explosion. The casualties were mostly passersby or those who had arrived for court appointments, the TV reported.

There was no immediate comment by the Islamabad police, which said they are still investigating.

Earlier Tuesday, Pakistani security forces said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other Pakistani Taliban targeted the facility in a northwestern province.

The attack started on Monday evening, when a bomber tried to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and other foreign militants.

According to Alamgir Mahsud, the local police chief, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three militants managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block. The army’s commandoes were among the forces conducting a clearance operation and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into Tuesday, Mahsud said.

The administrative block is away from the building housing hundreds of cadets and other staff.

The Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, denied involvement in the college attack. The group has been emboldened since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks in recent years. The deadliest assault on a school occurred in 2014 when Taliban gunmen killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar. According to the military, the assailants wanted to repeat Monday what happened during the 2014 attack in Peshawar.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen in recent months. Kabul blamed Islamabad for drone strikes on Oct. 9 that killed several people in the Afghan capital and vowed retaliation. The ensuing cross-border fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on Oct. 19, which remains in place.

Since then, two rounds of peace talks have been held in Istanbul — the latest on Thursday — but ended without agreement after Kabul refused to provide a written assurance that the TTP and other militant groups would not use Afghan territory against Pakistan. An earlier, brief ceasefire between Pakistan and the TTP, brokered by Kabul in 2022, collapsed later after the group accused Islamabad of violating it.

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Mahsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan.