Suicide bomber kills 12 outside Islamabad court as Pakistan violence rises

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck outside a court in Pakistan's capital Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people in the latest of an uptick in violence across the country.

Witnesses described mayhem. The blast, which also wounded 27 people, was heard for miles and came at a time of day when the area outside the district court in Islamabad is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the attack, in messages to reporters from the group's leader, Omar Mukkaram Khurasani. However, an influential commander within the group, Sarbakaf Mohmand, also sent messages disavowing any claim to the attack.

The group quit the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, after the head of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was killed in a blast in Afghanistan in 2022. Though some members recently rejoined the TTP, others keep their distance, indicating continuing differences among the insurgents.

The TPP is separate from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban that leads the neighboring country.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has staged smaller attacks in the past but its ability to hit the Pakistani capital is likely to further compound the struggles of the Pakistani government as it faces a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, border tensions and a fragile ceasefire with Afghanistan.

Without giving evidence, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi alleged the attack was “carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taliban. Still, he said authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the explosion.

New Delhi rejected the allegation as baseless. “The international community is well aware of the reality and will not be misled by Pakistan’s desperate diversionary ploys," Randhir Jaswal, the spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement.

The attack drew condemnation, including from the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a full investigation and reiterated that “all perpetrators of terrorism must be held accountable,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle,” Naqvi told journalists. State-run media and two security officials earlier said a car bomb caused the explosion.

The casualties were mostly passersby or those who had arrived for court appointments, according to Islamabad police.

More than a dozen wounded people screamed for help as ambulances rushed to the scene. “People started running in all directions,” Mohammad Afzal, who was at the court at the time, told The Associated Press.

Naqvi said the bomber was not included in the death toll of 12. Police said a severed head was identified as the attacker's, which Naqvi said confirmed the blast was a suicide attack. The attacker also was seen in security footage, he said.

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

The authorities blamed TTP. The TTP denied involvement in Monday's attack at the college, and spokesman Mohammad Khurasani also denied involvement in Tuesday's attack.

The school targeted is in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The area had until recent years been a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and other foreign militants.

According to the local police chief, Alamgir Mahsud, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three others managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block. He said the clearance operation was still underway Tuesday, some 20 hours after the attack.

The block is away from the building housing hundreds of cadets and other staff, who were quickly evacuated to safer places by Pakistani commandos.

There were no immediate reports of casualties among the students or staff. The army has not provided any information about military casualties.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the two attacks and called for a full investigation. “We will ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and held accountable,” he said in a statement.

Sharif described attacks on unarmed civilians as “reprehensible” and added: “We will not allow the blood of innocent Pakistanis to go to waste.”

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said on X that the country is in a state of war and laid the blame with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which Islamabad accuses of sheltering the TTP.

Afghanistan "can act to stop terrorism in Pakistan, but bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul,” Asif said and warned that Pakistan “has the strength to respond fully.”

Pakistan has outlawed the TTP, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the United States and the United Nations have designated the group a terrorist organization. The Afghan Taliban takeover in Kabul in 2021 emboldened the TTP, and many of its leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan. Kabul denies it's protecting the TTP.

Militant attacks in Pakistan have surged in recent years. The deadliest assault on a school occurred in 2014, when a breakaway TTP faction killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar. The military claimed the attackers in Wana wanted to repeat the assault.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen in recent months. Kabul has blamed Islamabad for drone strikes on Oct. 9 that killed several people in the Afghan capital. 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 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 after the group accused Islamabad of violating it.

Mahsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Security officials examine a damaged vehicle at the site following a suicide bombing outside the gates of a district court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Yousuf)

Pakistan's police officers and lawyers gather at the site following a suicide bombing outside the gates of a district court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/W.K. Yousufzai)

Pakistani investigators examine a damaged car at the site of a suicide bombing outside the gates of a district court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahsan Shahzad)

Security officials and rescue workers gather at the site following a suicide bombing outside the gates of a district court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Yousuf)

Pakistani investigators examine a damage car at the site of a suicide bombing outside the gates of a district court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahsan Shahzad)

Pakistani security officials stand guard after a powerful car bomb exploded outside a district court in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Yousuf)

Pakistani security officials stand guard after a powerful car bomb exploded outside a district court in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Yousuf)

Pakistani security officials stand guard after a powerful car bomb exploded outside a district court in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Yousuf)

MILAN (AP) — Top Italian skiers Federica Brignone and Sofia Goggia will not be in Sölden when the World Cup season starts in Austria on Oct. 24 and are unsure when they can compete again.

Brignone stunned the sport when she won two Olympic gold medals — in super-G and giant slalom — at the Milan Cortina Winter Games in February, just 10 months after breaking multiple bones in her left leg.

The 36-year-old skier then underwent another operation at the end of August to remove a metal plate and screws from the leg because of persistent pain and discomfort.

“It was something I had to do also for my day-to-day life, to feel better,” Brignone said on Friday. “Now I’m back to doing physiotherapy every day … but I’m happy with how it’s going, it’s definitely easier than last year.

“I have no idea when I’ll be back, I haven’t even really put on skis since February. I did two days on the glacier (in July) but I wouldn’t even call that skiing, I really struggled. But now, I’m better. The first aim is to put on skis again and then I will be able to understand when I can come back to racing or at least do serious training.”

Goggia, who claimed bronze in the downhill in Cortina to add to her previous tally of an Olympic gold and a silver medal, has been battling two viral infections since a training camp in Argentina.

That affected her nervous system, causing her severe pain as well as making it difficult at times to even talk or walk down the stairs — and she also said she couldn’t even remember how to jump.

“I was very scared when I had these indescribable pains, without even understanding where they came from,” Goggia said. “I was very scared by these excruciating pains that I had even at night, turning in bed.

“Then when you get back to Italy and you feel very sluggish, you’re struggling with stairs, you’re slow with works, you’re slow with movements – I knew there was something wrong, but at least the initial assessments excluded anything serious.”

Goggia — who holds four World Cup downhill titles and is also the reigning super-G champion — is primarily a speed specialist. The season begins with seven technical races, three of which are in Europe, before another four in North America.

The first downhills and super-G are scheduled for Dec. 11-13 in Beaver Creek before returning to Europe.

Brignone and Goggia are aiming to train at Copper Mountain. Brignone will almost certainly miss the North American races, while Goggia is hoping to make her comeback then.

“That’s the idea,” she said. “I only started training last week because the two weeks before I was back and forth to hospital and I was really tired, weak and still had strong symptoms. So they told me to rest more.”

Goggia has had to deal with several serious injuries in her career, but said that coping with this illness was much more difficult as she didn’t have “a biological healing time.”

“So the only goal I’m setting for myself right now is to get back to being clear-headed, coordinated, and mentally present, with my neurological system fully back to normal. I’m in the final stages of this virus and there are still some lingering aftereffects but I’ve made tremendous progress.”

See AP's full alpine-skiing coverage here

FILE - Italy's Sofia Goggia competes in an alpine ski, women's giant slalom race, at the Lillehammer World Cup Finals, in Hafjell, Norway, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti, file)

FILE - Italy's Federica Brignone speeds down the course during a women's World Cup super-G race, in Soldeu, Andorra, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti, file)