Foreign Office denies media reports on Kabul attack claim

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office dismissed on Sunday reports in a section of media based on an ISIS claim of responsibility for a terrorist attack at a wedding reception in Kabul that implicated a Pakistani national.

“Pakistan rejects these baseless allegations,” the foreign office spokesperson said in a statement.

He said Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

“We have proactively and successfully taken action to uproot the scourge of terrorism. Pakistan will continue its efforts in the same spirit, in coordination with the regional and international partners,’” the statement  added.

A suicide bomber killed 63 people and wounded 182 in an attack on a wedding reception in the Afghan capital on Saturday night.

Women and children were among the casualties, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said on Sunday.

Pictures posted on social media showed bodies strewn amid overturned table and chairs at the wedding hall. The bomber struck the men’s reception area, officials said.

“Everybody was running,” a waiter at the hall, Sayed Agha Shah, said after the blast.

“Several of our waiters were killed and wounded.”