(MENAFN) India has firmly rejected Pakistan’s accusations of involvement in a suicide bombing that struck outside a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people.

The denial came as tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors escalated following consecutive explosions in both capitals — one in Islamabad and another that left over a dozen dead in Delhi just a day earlier.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday described the Islamabad blast as part of a broader pattern of “Indian state terrorism” in the region. He urged global powers to “condemn such nefarious conspiracies of India.”

Responding sharply, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal dismissed the allegations as “baseless and unfounded,” calling the Pakistani leadership “obviously delirious.”

“It is a predictable tactic to concoct false narratives against India in order to deflect attention of its own public,” Jaiswal said on Tuesday. “The international community is well aware of the reality and will not be misled by Pakistan’s desperate diversionary ploys.”

The Islamabad bombing unfolded as the Sri Lankan cricket team played in nearby Rawalpindi, roughly 10 miles from the court complex — a chilling echo of the 2009 assault on the same team in Lahore.

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif claimed the attack originated from across the Afghan border.

”We are in a state of war,” Asif said on Tuesday. “Bringing this war to Islamabad is a message from Kabul, to which Pakistan has the full power to respond.”

Meanwhile, India has refrained from blaming Pakistan for Monday’s explosion in Delhi, which killed 13 people and injured more than 20 when a car detonated near the historic Red Fort.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said authorities were pursuing “all angles” in the investigation and vowed that security forces would “hunt down each and every culprit behind this incident.”

MENAFN12112025000045017169ID1110330934