At least 61 people were killed and 150 injured in an explosion at a mosque inside the Peshawar police headquarters in northwest Pakistan, prompting authorities to place a nationwide high alert.
Source: AFP
The explosion occurred during the prayer inside the mosquelocated in an enclosure that In addition to the police headquarters, it also houses the headquarters of the intelligence agencies.
peshawar city It is close to the border with Afghanistan. Following the attack, Pakistani authorities They decreed maximum alert throughout the country.
“Many policemen are buried under the rubble“, He said Peshawar Police Chief Muhammad Ijaz Khanwhich calculates that between 300 and 400 officers used to attend the prayers in the mosque. “Efforts are being made to get them out safe and sound”he added.
Rescuers they launched into a frantic rescue operation to try to save people be under the rubbleafter what a wall of the mosque and part of the roof will be destroyed.
In the place there is a vast rescue operation underwaylaunched by the firefighters with the machinery help to clear the debris.
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But when night falls there were at least four men trapped, visible between the cracks, along with bodies that have not yet been removed.
“THEY SCREAMED FOR HELP”
The authorities They decreed maximum alert in the capital and throughout the country. In Islamabad, snipers were placed to protect some buildings and at access points.
“Terrorists want to create fear hit those who have the task of defending Pakistan,” said the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif it’s a statement.
“Those who fight against Pakistan they will be wiped off the face of the earth“he added.
According to the police, the explosion occurred in the second row of the faithful who were praying. To the place demining teams were mobilized for fears that the attack It was a suicide bombing.
Shahid Ali, a 47-year-old police officer 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 recounted. “I still hear people’s screams in my head. They were screaming for help“.
The incident occurred 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.
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A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
In March 2022, a suicide attack on a Shiite minority mosque in Peshawar claimed by IS-Kthe local branch of the jihadist group Islamic State, left 64 dead. This attack it was the worst suffered by Pakistan since 2018.
Peshawarabout 50 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan, was hit by attacks almost daily in the first half of the 2010sbut security has improved in recent years.
Nevertheless, in recent months the city has suffered attacks, especially against the security forces.
The country in general has faced a deterioration in the security situation in recent monthsparticularly 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 EI-K and Baloch separatist groups.
Pakistan reproaches the Taliban for let these groups use their territory to plan attackssomething that the Kabul authorities deny.
pakistan taliban is a separate movement from that of the Afghan leadership but they have common roots.
The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, but one of his worst atrocities that marked public opinion in Pakistan was the massacre of 150 people in a school in Peshawar in December 2014.
