ISLAMABAD, Nov 12, (AP): Pakistan opened a probe Wednesday into the suicide bombing outside an Islamabad district court that left 12 dead the day before, underscoring the challenges facing the government as it struggles with militant attacks, border tensions and a fragile ceasefire with Afghanistan. The attack at the court, located on the edge of the city and next to a residential area, also raised alarms that despite multiple operations by the security forces to crush the militants, they are still capable of mounting high-profile bombings in the Pakistani capital.

Authorities have struggled with a surge in militant attacks in recent years but until Tuesday's bombing, Islamabad has largely been considered a safer place. Forensic teams and police were combing through debris Wednesday at the site of the blast, which had been sealed to preserve evidence. Across the city, grief-stricken relatives were receiving the bodies of their slain loved ones at an Islamabad hospital.

Most of the 27 people wounded in the bombing had been released home after treatment. Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi alleged in the immediate aftermath of the bombing on Tuesday that the attack was "carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taleban, though he said authorities were "looking into all aspects” of the explosion. He offered no evidence for his claim and New Delhi rejected it as baseless. Naqvi blamed the Pakistani Taleban, known as Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan or TTP, for the attack.

The TTP denied involvement while a breakaway faction, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility only to have one of its commanders later contradict that claim. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar split from the TTP after its leader was killed in Afghanistan in 2022; some members have since rejoined the TTP while others remain independent, underscoring divisions within Pakistan’s militant networks.

The attack drew widespread condemnation from the international community. The Islamabad bombing came a day after four militants targeted an army-run college for cadets in the northwestern city of Wana. The police said four of the attackers - including a suicide car bomber - were killed and more than 600 people, including 525 cadets, were safely rescued during the overnight assault.