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

Witnesses described scenes of mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the explosion , which also wounded 27 people on Tuesday. The blast was heard for more than a kilometre away and came at a busy time of the day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group has staged smaller attacks in the past years but its ability to hit the Pakistani capital is likely t

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