A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a Shiite Muslim religious center in the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Wednesday evening, officials said, killing at least two people in what is the third deadly attack on a Pakistani Shiite facility in three weeks.
The attacker tried to enter the imambargah, or Shiite congregation hall, during evening prayers at 6:45 p.m. but was stopped by a security guard, Islamabad police said.
The bomber detonated his explosives outside the building, police said.
The bombing killed two people and injured seven others, said Dr. Aisha Isani, a representative of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, which was treating people injured in the blast.
The militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, a spokesman for the group said. The spokesman said that the group attacked because of a months-long Pakistani military operation against the Taliban and other militant groups in the country’s North Waziristan area, and that Jundallah would continue to target Shiite Muslims.
North Waziristan is one of the northwestern Pakistan tribal areas bordering Afghanistan that have long been a base for anti-government militants. The Pakistani military campaign has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim country. Shiites make up about 10% to 15% of the country’s population, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Last month, Jundallah also claimed responsibility for a January 30 bombing at a Shiite mosque in the southern Pakistani city of Shikarpur. That blast killed at least 48 people and injured dozens of others, officials said.
On Friday, a suicide bombing and gunfire attack on a Shiite mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killed at least 19 people, officials said. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.