ISLAMABAD: Senior lawyer Aslam Ghumman’s heart skipped a beat when television channels broke the news of a blast in Islamabad’s G-11 sector. His son, Zubair Ghumman, had gone to that area only minutes earlier.
Twelve people were killed and 36 wounded when a deadly suicide explosion took place outside a district court complex in Islamabad’s G-11 sector.
Pakistan has suffered an uptick in militant violence in recent months in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan. Islamabad blames the attacks on militants based in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies.
The suicide bombing on Tuesday was the deadliest attack in Islamabad in years. And just as his father feared, Zubair was among the 12 who perished in the blast.
“I called him… he didn’t pick up,” Ghumman recalled, his voice breaking. “Then a friend answered and told me, ‘He’s injured. We’re taking him to PIMS [Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences] hospital.’”
