ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people, Pakistan’s interior minister said, the latest in an uptick in violence across the country.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the midday blast, which also wounded at least 27 people, but authorities have struggled over the past months with a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, border tensions, and a fragile ceasefire with neighboring Afghanistan.

Witnesses described scenes of mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The explosion, heard for miles away, came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.

The attacker tried to “en

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