At least 25 dead and more than 120 injured in Pakistani mosque attack

At least 25 people were killed and 120 others injured in an explosion inside a mosque Inside the Peshawar Police Headquarters, in northwestern Pakistan. The explosion occurred during prayers in the city of Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan.

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

“So far 25 people have died and 120 have been injured… I am here at the scene and rescue work is underway,” said Shafiullah Khan, the deputy city commissioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, from which is Peshawar capital.

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 looking for more information, but the explosion took place at the time of the prayer,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan confirmed to 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 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. 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 that of the Afghan leadership, but has common roots.

The 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. (YO)