Tragedy in Pakistan: at least 28 dead and more than 150 injured after attack on mosque


At least 28 people were killed and 150 others injured in an explosion inside a mosque inside the Peshawar Police headquarters in northwest Pakistan.

The blast took place during prayers in the city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border.

An AFP journalist, who was on the scene, saw rescuers take people who appeared to be dead into an ambulance. Part of the roof of the mosque and parts of the walls were destroyed. Likewise, bloodied survivors emerged from the rubble.

“So far 28 people have died and about 150 have been injured. Most of the victims were policemen”Ghulam Ali, governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital, told reporters.

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A vast rescue operation is underway at the site, launched by firefighters with the help of machinery to remove the rubble, according to the AFP journalist.

“We are seeking more information, but the explosion took place at the time of the prayer,” Peshawar Police Chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP.

An area under surveillance

The Peshawar Police Headquarters is one of the best guarded areas of the city and also houses the headquarters of the different intelligence agencies.

According to the police, the explosion occurred in the second row of the faithful who were praying. Demining teams were mobilized to the site due to fears that the attack was a suicide bombing.

In March 2022, 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 recently improved.

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.

Pakistan reproaches the Taliban for allowing these groups to use its territory to plan attacks, something the Kabul authorities deny.

Pakistan’s Taliban are a separate movement from the Afghan leadership, but have common roots.

The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, but one of its worst atrocities, which shocked public opinion in Pakistan, was the massacre of 150 people at a school in Peshawar in December 2014.

With information from AFP

Source-larepublica.pe