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 .

Witnesses described scenes of mayhem. The blast, which also wounded 27 people, was heard for miles away and came at a time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the attack, in messages to reporters from the group’s leader, Omar Mukkaram Khurasani. However, an influential commander within the group, Sarbakaf Mohmand, also sent messages disavowing any claim to the attack.

The group qu

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