Death toll from Pakistan mosque suicide bombing rises to 88

Peshawar, Jan. 31 (BNA): The death toll from a suicide bombing in a mosque in northwestern Pakistan rose today, Tuesday, to 88, officials said.

The attack, which targeted a Sunni mosque inside a major police station, was one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent years.

More than 300 worshipers were performing prayers at the mosque in the city of Peshawar, with more approaching, when the attacker detonated his explosive vest Monday morning, the Associated Press reported.

The explosion took place in the mosque, killing and wounding dozens, and blew up part of its roof. Police officer Zafar Khan said what was left of the roof then collapsed, injuring many.

Rescuers had to clear piles of rubble to reach worshipers still trapped under the rubble.

More bodies were recovered during the night and into the early hours of Tuesday, according to Muhammad Asim, a spokesman for a government hospital in Peshawar, and many of the seriously injured died.

“Most of them were policemen,” Asim said of the victims. Rescue teams were still working on Tuesday at the site as more people were believed to be trapped inside, said Bilal Faizi, the chief rescue official. Mourners buried the victims of the bombing in various cemeteries in the city and elsewhere.

The bombing also injured more than 150 people. It was not clear how the suicide bomber managed to infiltrate the compound, which is surrounded by a wall in a high-security area with other government buildings, and reach the mosque, an indication of a major security lapse.

Ghulam Ali, the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital, said the investigation would show “how the terrorist entered the mosque”. “Yes, it was a security lapse,” he added. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar after the bombing and vowed to “take firm action” against those behind the attack. “The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is nothing short of an attack on Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.

He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, saying that their pain “cannot be described in words.” The authorities did not specify who was behind the bombing. Shortly after the blast, Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a Twitter post. Hours later, however, the movement’s spokesman, Mohammad Khorasani, distanced the group from the bombing, saying that its policy is not to target mosques, religious institutes and religious places, adding that those who engage in such actions may face punitive measures under the movement’s policy.

His statement did not address the reason why the leader of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing. Pakistan, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim, has seen a surge in militant attacks since November, when the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire with government forces.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also expressed his condolences and described the bombing as a “suicide terrorist attack”. Sharif’s government came to power in April after Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence in parliament. Khan has since campaigned for snap elections, claiming his ouster was illegal and part of a US-backed conspiracy. Washington and Sharif rejected Khan’s claims.

FKN