PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 30 (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a extremely fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 59 folks, the newest assault by resurgent Islamist militants focusing on police.
The attacker appeared to have handed by way of a number of barricades manned by security forces to get into the “Red Zone” compound that homes police and counter-terrorism places of work in the unstable northwestern metropolis of Peshawar, police mentioned.
“It was a suicide bombing,” Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan advised Reuters. Many of the 170 wounded folks have been in crucial situation, he mentioned.
The demise toll rose to 59 after a number of folks succumbed to their wounds, hospital official Mohammad Asim mentioned in a press release.
The bombing occurred a day earlier than an International Monetary Fund mission to Islamabad to provoke talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian nation’s financial system, which is enduring a steadiness of funds disaster.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the assault.
The bomber detonated his load for the time being lots of of individuals lined as much as say their prayers, officers mentioned.
“We have found traces of explosives,” Khan advised reporters, including {that a} security lapse had clearly occurred because the bomber had slipped by way of probably the most secured space of the compound.
An inquiry was below approach into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether or not there was any inside assist.
Khan mentioned the mosque corridor was full of as much as 400 worshippers, and that a lot of the useless have been cops.
[1/17] Rescue staff search for survivors below a collapsed roof, after a suicide blast in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan January 30, 2023. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
There was no speedy declare of accountability for the assault, the worst in Peshawar since March 2022 when an Islamic State suicide bombing killed at the least 58 folks in a Shi’ite Muslim mosque throughout Friday prayers.
Peshawar, which straddles the sting of Pakistan’s tribal districts bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, is steadily focused by Islamist militant teams together with Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban.
`ALLAH IS THE GREATEST`
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif advised Geo TV that the bomber was standing in the primary row of worshippers.
“As the prayer leader said ‘Allah is the greatest’, there was a big bang,” Mushtaq Khan, a policeman with a head wound, advised reporters from his hospital mattress.
“We couldn’t figure out what happened as the bang was deafening. It threw me out of the veranda. The walls and roof fell on me. Thanks to God, he saved me.”
The explosion introduced down the higher storey of the mosque, trapping dozens of worshippers in the rubble. Live TV footage confirmed rescuers slicing by way of the collapsed rooftop to make their approach down and have a tendency to victims caught in the wreckage.
“We can’t say how many are still under it,” mentioned provincial governor Haji Ghulam Ali.
“The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable,” Sharif mentioned. “This is no less than an attack on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed by a deep sense of grief. I have no doubt terrorism is our foremost national security challenge.”
Witnesses described chaotic scenes because the police and the rescuers scrambled to hurry the wounded to hospitals.
Sharif, who appealed to workers of his celebration to donate blood on the hospitals, mentioned anybody focusing on Muslims throughout prayer had nothing to do with Islam.
Reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Asif Shahzad; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Mark Heinrich and Grant McCool
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