Television footage showed the fiery wreckage of a vehicle with a large number of police personnel at the scene.
According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Sohail Zafar Chattha, the police spotted a “suspicious vehicle” with a man and a woman aboard at 10:15am in the area.
“When the police stopped the vehicle, the couple came out of the car. The long-haired man, while being checked by the officers, went inside the vehicle on some pretext and then detonated himself,” he said in a media briefing at the crime scene alongside Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon.
Chattha said a police officer of the Eagle Squad was martyred in the blast while four others officers were injured. He lauded the police for “saving Islamabad from a major foul play”.
Meanwhile, the joint executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Dr Iqbal Durrani, told Dawn.com that two bodies and five injured policemen had been brought to the hospital.
Later in a tweet, the Islamabad police identified the slain officer as Head Constable Adeel Hussain. It said that terrorists had been targeting police for some time to demoralize law enforcement personnel.
In another tweet, the police said that diversions had been placed for both sides of traffic at Service Road East of Sector I-10/4. It advised citizens to use Service Road West of Sector I-10/4 as an alternate and stay away from the blast site.
Immediately after the blast was reported, the Islamabad inspector-general issued orders for a “security red alert” across the city.
In a tweet, the police said that strict action will be taken against vehicles with “non-specimen” number plates, adding that no one will be allowed to carry arms.
It also advised residents to carry documents of identification while travelling.
A day ago, Islamabad police issued a statement, saying its Eagle Squad had checked 2,024 suspicious persons, motorcycles, and vehicles as part of a security measure, especially in the aftermath of a new wave of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the blast and expressed grief over the martyrdom of the policeman.
In a statement issued after the blast, he paid tribute to the “brave men of Islamabad police”.