The Pakistani Taliban group denied involvement in an attack outside a busy court in Islamabad. Photo: AP PHOTO

A suicide bomber has killed 12 people in Pakistan's capital in a sharp escalation of militant violence that the defence minister says had pushed the country into a "state of war".

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Pakistani government ministers accused neighbouring Afghanistan of complicity in the bloodshed - an accusation officials in Kabul denied - and vowed retaliation if Afghan authorities failed to rein in the militants they say were responsible.

"We are in a state of war," Defence Minister Khawaja Mu

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