Pakistani authorities have arrested close relatives of the suicide bomber who carried out the deadly attack at an imambargah in Islamabad’s Tarlai area, as security agencies launched operations across the country, intelligence sources said.

According to the sources, the suicide bomber’s brother-in-law was arrested in Karachi, while his brother was taken into custody in Peshawar. A key facilitator linked to the attack was killed during an operation in Nowshera.

The most significant arrest, the sources said, was that of the bomber’s mother, who was detained from a house in a posh sector of Islamabad. Intelligence agencies said operations were under way nationwide to dismantle the network behind the attack.

At least 32 people were killed and around 169 others injured when a suicide bomber struck Imambargah Khadijah al-Kubra during Friday prayers, according to authorities and hospital officials. The blast, accompanied by explosions and gunfire, occurred as worshippers gathered for Jumma prayers.

Also read: Bomber identified as Peshawar resident ‘trained in Afghanistan’

The attack was the deadliest in Islamabad in more than a decade and the deadliest in the country since the Peshawar mosque bombing in January 2023.

Investigators have identified the attacker as Yasir Khan, a resident of Peshawar, who had travelled to Afghanistan multiple times and received training there. According to preliminary information shared by sources close to the investigation, he stayed in Afghanistan for about five months before returning to Pakistan.

“He received training at the Mansoor Istashhadi training centre in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province and travelled to and from the country multiple times,” sources told The Express Tribune.

Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry confirmed that the bomber had been identified. “He is not an Afghan citizen, but forensic examination of the remaining parts of his body has provided information about how many times he had travelled to Afghanistan,” he said.

State broadcaster PTV News said on X that terrorist groups present in Afghanistan pose a wider regional security threat and claimed a nexus between Afghanistan and India behind attacks in Pakistan, an allegation Kabul has denied.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif echoed those claims, blaming what he described as an “India-Afghanistan nexus” for the imambargah attack. In a post on X, he said it had been established that the attacker travelled to and from Afghanistan and that evidence was emerging of links between India and the Taliban.

He termed the perpetrators “enemies of both religion and the nation” and said the state would respond with full force.