Liberal Party will meet today to finalise net zero position; Suicide blast outside a court in Pakistan kills 12, injures 27

A suicide bomber killed 12 people in Pakistan’s capital overnight, in a sharp escalation of militant violence that the country’s defence minister said had pushed the country into a “state of war”.

Pakistani government ministers accused neighbouring Afghanistan of complicity in the bloodshed – an accusation Kabul denied – and vowed retaliation if Afghan authorities failed to rein in the militants Islamabad says were responsible.

“We are in a state of war,” said Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif after the attack, the first strike on civilians in Islamabad in a decade.

“Bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul, to which Pakistan has the full power to respond.”

Pakistan is locked in confrontation with Kabul and New Delhi. It fought a four-day war with India in May and then last month carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan, including Kabul, in response to what it said was the presence of Pakistani militants there. Subsequent skirmishes on the Pakistan-Afghan border were followed by unsuccessful peace talks.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a busy lower court in Islamabad. The main Pakistani jihadist group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, otherwise known as the Pakistani Taliban, denied involvement in the attacks.

Reuters