By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Afghan nationals carried out two suicide bombings in Pakistan this week, including one in the capital Islamabad, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Thursday, amid sharpening tensions between the South Asian neighbours over militant violence.
Both the bombers involved in the attacks have been identified as Afghans, he told parliament in a session carried live on television.
“It is our major, serious concern,” Naqvi said, adding that Pakistani authorities had time and again taken up the issue of security with the Afghan Taliban administration in Kabul.
He blamed the Afghan Taliban for supporting Islamist militants who attack Pakistani forces.
There was no immediate response from Kabul.
BOMBINGS STOKE REGIONAL TENSIONS
Naqvi was speaking after a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police patrol outside a lower court in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 27.
Another bomber had rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the main gate of a military school in South Waziristan district, near the Afghan border, on Monday, killing three people.
Militants then entered the school, which is run by the military but educates civilians, triggering a fight with Pakistani soldiers that continued for more than 24 hours until all of the attackers were killed.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained in recent years, with Islamabad accusing militants sheltering across the border of staging attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies giving safe haven to militants to attack Pakistan.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed in border clashes between the two countries last month.
Adding to regional tensions, Pakistan is also locked in confrontation with perpetual foe India, with whom it fought a four-day war in May.
RIVALRY WITH INDIA
Islamabad says that the Pakistani Taliban and other militants based in Afghanistan are supported by India, a charge New Delhi denies.
India and Pakistan have for decades vied for influence in Afghanistan, an unstable but geopolitically vital country both see as crucial to their security.
The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, have been waging a war against the Pakistani state since 2007 in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with their harsh brand of Islamic governance system.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Writing by Surbhi Misra; Editing by YP Rajesh and Alex Richardson)
