Witnesses describe blast rocking Islamabad imambargah

ISLAMABAD: A worshipper at the imambargah in Islamabad where dozens of people were martyred in a suicide blast on Friday described an "extremely powerful" explosion ripping through the building just after prayer started.

Muhammad Kazim, 52, told AFP he arrived at the Imambargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra shortly after 1:00pm (0800 GMT) on Friday and took up a place around seven or eight rows from the Imam.

"During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire," he told AFP outside the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) hospital, where many of the wounded were brought for treatment.

"And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred," he said.

Kazim — from Gilgit Baltistan who currently lives in Islamabad — escaped unharmed, but accompanied his wounded friend to the Pims hospital for treatment.

"It was unclear whether it was a suicide bombing, but the explosion was extremely powerful and caused numerous casualties," Kazim said.

"Debris fell from the roof, and windows were shattered," he added. "When I got outside, many bodies were scattered... Many people lost their lives."

Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, described a gunfight between the suicide bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the imambargah.

"The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh," Mahmood, in his fifties, told AFP.

"He fell but got up again. Another man accompanying him opened fire on our volunteers," he said, adding the attacker "then jumped onto the gate and detonated the explosives".

By nightfall on Friday, the death toll stood at 31, with 169 more wounded.

The attack was the deadliest in the capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.