The death toll has risen to more than 100 in the attack on a mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Distraught relatives meanwhile search for their loved ones in hospitals. The number of injured stands at 221.
A hospital in Peshawar, in northern Pakistan about 40 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan, reports that after more bodies of victims were brought in last night. At least ten bodies were pulled from the rubble.
Emergency services are still working to remove bodies from the rubble. The chance that the death toll will rise further is small. The grief is great among the relatives of the victims. “My son, my child,” cries an elderly woman who walks past an ambulance carrying coffins, the Reuters news agency describes. Ahead, rescuers take the injured to the hospital’s emergency room.
On Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up with a powerful bomb in a large and crowded mosque in the city, where about 400 people were present at the time. Near the mosque, which was destroyed by the explosion, are the headquarters of the local police, an office of the Pakistan counter-terrorism unit, a headquarters of the special police unit ‘the border reserve’ and other security services. Many police officers are among the victims.
It would be one of the most highly secured areas of the city. Authorities say they do not know how the attacker managed to get through the checkpoints of the army and police. Given the security concerns in Peshawar, the mosque was built recently to allow the police to pray without leaving the area.
‘Horrible’
According to Pakistani media, a splinter group of the terrorist Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility, but according to other media, TTP denies any involvement. The TTP is a collection of groups of Sunni extremists, mainly from the Pathan (Pashtun) population group, who are ethnically and ideologically, but not organisationally, related to the Afghan Taliban.
UN chief António Guterres has condemned the attack as horrific. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the terrorists are “trying to instill fear by targeting those who defend Pakistan.” He said it was ‘nothing less than an attack on Pakistan’.
In March last year, an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque in Peshawar, killing 64. It was Pakistan’s deadliest terror attack since 2018.
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