A suicide attack on Monday at a mosque inside a police compound in northwest Pakistan left at least 33 officers dead. and another 150 people injured, mostly members of the security forces, in one of the worst attacks against this body in the history of the Asian country.
“The death toll has reached 32 and they are all policemen. More than 147 people were injured and they are also mostly policemen,” Asim Khan, a spokesman for the Lady Reading hospital in the city of Peshawar, where the attack occurred, told Efe. .
The spokesman stated that around twenty wounded are in serious condition, and pointed out that the medical center has been forced to make a call to donate blood to treat the dozens of victims of the attack.
How did the attack happen?
The attack occurred around noon at a mosque in Police Lines, a residential and training center for police officers, which explains the high number of victims within this body, the Peshawar commissioner, Riaz Mehsud, explained to Efe.
“People from outside are not allowed to enter the center,” Mehsud remarked.
The Peshawar Police Headquarters is one of the best guarded areas of the city and also houses the headquarters of the different intelligence agencies.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif revealed that the suicide bomber was in the front row during prayers.
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Shahid Ali, a 47-year-old policeman who survived the blast told AFP that the detonation occurred a few seconds after the imam began the prayer.
“I saw a black smoke go up to the sky. I ran out to save myself,” he said. “I still hear people screaming in my head. They were screaming for help.”
Rescuers launched a frantic rescue operation to try to save people from under the rubble, after a wall of the mosque and part of the roof were destroyed.
“There are a lot of policemen buried under the rubble,” said Peshawar police commander Muhammad Ijaz Khan, who estimated that usually between 300 and 400 officers attend the prayer.
“It is time for us to fight the war on terror again,” the defense minister said in an interview with Pakistani Geo TV.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the “brutal murder of Muslims when they prayed before Allah”, while traveling to the area of the tragedy, where he will visit the victims and learn more details. about the attack.
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The authorities decreed a maximum alert in the capital and throughout the country.
In Islamabad, snipers were placed to protect some buildings and at access points.
The incident occurred on the same day that the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed ben Zayed Al Nahyan, was scheduled to visit Islamabad. The displacement was canceled at the last minute this Monday, officially due to the rains.So far, no insurgent formation has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Safety in Pakistan
The suicide attack this Monday is one of the bloodiest of its kind in recent years. But places of worship, especially those reserved for religious minorities such as Shiites, have come under constant attack over the years.
In March 2022, for example, a suicide attack on a minority Shiite mosque in Peshawar claimed by IS-K, the local branch of the Islamic State jihadist group, left 64 dead. This attack was the worst suffered by Pakistan since 2018.
Peshawar, some 50 kilometers from the Afghan border, was hit by bombings almost daily in the first half of the 2010s, but security has improved in recent years. However, in recent months the city has suffered attacks, especially against the security forces.
The country, in general, has faced a deteriorating security situation in recent months, particularly since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
After several years of relative calm, there were again attacks by the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the IS-K and Baluch separatist groups.
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Pakistan reproaches the Taliban for allowing these groups to use its territory to plan attacks, something the Kabul authorities deny.
The Pakistani Taliban is a separate movement from the Afghan leadership, but has common roots. This group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, but one of its worst atrocities that shocked public opinion in Pakistan was the massacre of 150 people at a school in Peshawar in December 2014.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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