Pakistan’s security forces arrested four suspects after a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque near Islamabad killed 31 people, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Saturday, following raids on multiple locations. Naqvi identified the group’s alleged mastermind as an Afghan linked to the Islamic State network.

Naqvi made the announcement a day after a regional affiliate of the Islamic State group identified itself as Islamic State in Pakistan and claimed responsibility in a statement carried by Amaq News Agency. The Islamic State claim said the attacker opened fire on security guards who tried to stop him at the mosque’s main gate, before detonating his explosive vest after he reached the mosque’s inner gate.

The bombing on Friday also wounded 169 people, according to the report. Pakistani officials and analysts pointed to the incident as the deadliest in Islamabad since a 2008 suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel killed 63 people and wounded more than 250, and it came after a November suicide bombing outside a court in the capital killed 12 people.

Naqvi described the suspected mastermind as an Afghan linked to Islamic State and said he believed the attack was planned and that the bomber trained in Afghanistan, adding that there was financial backing from India. He provided no immediate evidence for those allegations, and there was no immediate comment from New Delhi or Kabul.

Addressing public concerns about whether security failures contributed to the attack, Naqvi said, “If one blast happens, 99 others are being foiled as well.” The comments were made as officials sought to reassure the public while investigating how the attacker reached the mosque during the attack sequence described by Islamic State.

Funerals began for the victims after the bombing, with more than 2,000 mourners gathering at the same mosque where a set of coffins of those killed were brought for services for about a dozen victims. Shiite community leaders and senior government officials attended, and funerals for other victims were set for their hometowns.

The attack drew condemnation from international governments including the United States, Russia and the European Union. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was grateful for messages of sympathy and support received “from across the globe” after what he called the “heart-wrenching suicide attack in Islamabad,” adding that international support remained critical to Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts and that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

The Islamic State group is a Sunni organization that has targeted Pakistan’s Shiite minority in the past, the report said, with a previous example in 2022 when it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Peshawar that killed at least 56 people and wounded 194. The report also noted that militant violence has risen recently in Pakistan, with much of it blamed on Baloch separatists and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The response also amplified tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government over accusations of militant safe havens. After the attack, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told reporters Friday that it signaled that Pakistan-based militants operating from Afghanistan could strike even in the capital; Afghanistan’s defense ministry condemned the bombing but said Asif had “irresponsibly” linked it to Afghanistan. Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan of harboring militants since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, and Kabul denies those accusations.

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