By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The death toll from the suicide bombing at the Peshawar mosque rose to 100 on Tuesday after rescue teams retrieved more bodies from the debris and called off the search for survivors of the terrorist attack in the highly guarded site where several hundred police and security men had gathered for afternoon prayers.
At least 170 people were wounded in the blast, which demolished the upper storey of the mosque.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan denied responsibility for Monday’s bombing, though it has stepped up attacks since withdrawing from a peace deal with the government last year.
The TTP, known as the Pakistan Taliban, has carried out a number of suicide attacks in the past, targeting security personnel.
“So far, 100 bodies have been brought to Lady Reading Hospital,” spokesman for the largest medical facility in the city, Mohammad Asim, said in a statement.
Asim said some 53 injured were currently being treated seven of whom had been admitted to the intensive care unit.
Many of the casualties were police officers. There were at least 300 people inside the mosque at the time of explosion, police said.
Authorities said they are investigating how the bomber managed to breach checkpoints leading into highly fortified colonial-era Police Lines.
“This needs to be thoroughly investigated as to how the bomber succeeded in reaching the target by crossing all the checkpoints,” Syed Masood Shah, a minister in the current caretaker government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said.
“This is not possible without some support. The bomber seems to be well aware of the area, and he might have visited the spot before he executed his plan.”
Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan said after the TTP denied their involvement in the attack and “the police have suspicions that Jamaatul Ahrar may be involved in the incident”.
“Jamaatul Ahrar has been involved with TTP to some extent but for some time, after the death of Omar Khalid Khorasani, they are split. Similarly, there is IS-KPK […] they issued a claim last night and we are investigating it,” Khan said at a news conference.
“Such groups often give exaggerated claims. We will take our probe forward and we will not rely on their claims.”
The attack was the deadliest in a decade to hit Peshawar and came amid a surge in violence against the police.
In March last year, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shia mosque that killed more than 60 worshipers.
According to the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, militant violence spiked by 22 percent in 2022 compared with 2021.
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