According to preliminary information shared by sources close to the investigation, the attacker, identified as Yasir Khan Yasir, had stayed in Afghanistan for approximately five months before returning to Pakistan.
Investigators are also examining possible links between the attacker and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), though they caution that inquiries remain ongoing at this stage.
Yasir Khan, who was inclined towards the Salafi school of thought, is believed to have received militant training during his stay in Afghanistan. "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
Authorities said efforts were underway to uncover the full network behind the attack, including identifying facilitators, handlers and any domestic or cross-border connections that may have enabled the operation.
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry also 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 added.
State broadcaster PTV News, in a post on social media platform X, stated that terrorist groups present in Afghanistan pose a broader regional security threat and claimed a nexus between Afghanistan and India behind attacks in Pakistan — an allegation that Kabul has denied.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif echoed those claims, blaming what he described as an "India-Afghanistan nexus" for the imambargah carnage. In a post on X, he said it had been established that the attacker had travelled to and from Afghanistan and that evidence was emerging of links between India and the Taliban.
He termed the perpetrators as "enemies of both religion and the nation" and pledged that the state would respond to the attack with full force.
Referring to the May 2025 military confrontation between Pakistan and India, he wrote that after a humiliating defeat, India was now fighting through proxies and no longer had the courage to engage in direct warfare.
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said 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.
Addressing the broader pattern of terrorism across the country, Chaudhry said, "There is a consistent pattern in these attacks: on one hand, terrorism is carried out in the name of religion by individuals, while on the other, groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) engage in violence based on ethnicity and provincialism".
Talal Chaudhry called the perpetrators of recent terrorist attacks "cowards" who deliberately target soft spots such as markets, schools, mosques, imambargahs, banks and other facilities meant for ordinary citizens.
He also reaffirmed that the implementation of the National Action Plan was continuing without compromise. "This is a war we are determined to win, and we are winning it. That is why they focus on soft targets rather than hard ones," he said.
Pakistani authorities have made a major breakthrough in the investigation into the suicide terrorist attack at an imambargah in Islamabad’s Tarlai Kalan area, arresting four facilitators and an Afghan mastermind linked to Islamic State (Daesh), security sources said.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies carried out raids in Peshawar and Nowshera, arresting the four facilitators of the suicide bomber. The operations were conducted on the basis of technical and human intelligence, the sources said.
Security officials said the Afghan mastermind of the attack, linked to Daesh, was also arrested. They said the planning, training and indoctrination of the attacker were carried out by Daesh in Afghanistan. The sources alleged that under the patronage of the Afghan Taliban, Daesh and other terrorist organisations pose a serious threat to regional and global peace.
During the operations, one security personnel was killed and three others were injured, the sources said.Officials said further intelligence-based operations against terrorists were continuing.
According to investigators, the suicide bomber was identified as Yasir, a resident of Peshawar. His four facilitators were taken into custody, including individuals who allegedly provided facilitation in the Rawalpindi area. Authorities earlier said Yasir’s two brothers, Bilal and Nasir, and his brother-in-law Usman were arrested from the Tarnab Farm area, while his mother was detained from a house in a posh sector of Islamabad.
Security sources said Yasir conducted reconnaissance of the imambargah before the attack and had also passed through the mosque a week earlier. They said he had stayed in Afghanistan for about four months before returning to Pakistan. The National Forensic Agency and NADRA were also assisting in collecting evidence.
According to preliminary findings, the attacker opened fire before entering the mosque and then detonated himself inside the main hall. He used between four and six kilograms of explosives packed with a large number of ball bearings, the sources said.
The attacker fired two shots on the way to the mosque and six shots after entering it. Officials said all bullet casings were recovered from the scene.
At least 36 people were killed and around 169 others injured when the suicide bomber struck Imambargah Khadijah al-Kubra during Friday prayers, according to authorities and hospital officials. The blast occurred as worshippers gathered for Jumma prayers and was accompanied by explosions and gunfire.
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.
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 terrorist groups based in Afghanistan pose a broader 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 termed the perpetrators “enemies of both religion and the nation” and said the state would respond with full force.