Raheel Sharif ordered intelligence agencies to find terrorists behind killing

He said that rescue operations are underway and they are trying to save as many people as possible and added that the war against terrorism would continue till the last terrorist is eliminated.

The preliminary investigation had suggested Sunni hardline group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was behind the bombing, provincial police chief Mushtaq Sukhera said.

Almost 30 people were also injured in the attack.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, long seen as being close to Al-Qaeda and more recently, accused of developing links with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, has a developed a reputation as one of Pakistan’s most ruthless militant groups.

Investigators said that Home Minister Khanzada received a threat after he busted a TTP terrorist gang in Shadara in the first week of July of this year.

Authorities said the bombing was a retaliatory strike, although no militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

Punjab’s Home Minister Shuja Khanzada has been killed in a suicide attack in the Pakistani province.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered rescuers to speed up the operation.

Speaking at a televised meeting of his cabinet on Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif vowed to “move forward with no holds barred” to take on the militants responsible. The bomb blast caused the roof of the building to collapse under which Khanzada was trapped for several hours, reported Geo TV.

The attacker struck when a local jirga (tribal council) was going on at the “hujra” (male guesthouse) of the home minster in Shadi Khan town of Attock district.

“We want to tell government of Pakistan and (its) army that you lose this battle of Ideologies”, Lashkar-e-Islam said in a statement released to NBC News.

“The Attock attack is revenge for the martyrdom of Malik Ishaq shaheed (martyr) and other mujahideen brothers”, Ehsan said.

The offensive escalated in December, after Pakistani Taliban fighters slaughtered 141 people, including 132 children in an attack on a military-run school in Peshawar in the South Asian nation’s northwest.