Peshawar, Pakistan, February 1 (Post Bureau) – Police investigating a suicide bombing at a mosque in Pakistan that killed more than 100 people said on Tuesday that several people had been arrested, and they denied the possibility. Can’t that the attacker avoided internal support. Security check.
The blast was the deadliest in a decade to hit Peshawar, a restive northwestern city near the Afghan border, and all but three of the dead were police, making it the deadliest attack by Pakistan’s security forces in recent history. The greatest damage was done by
The bombing occurred on Monday as hundreds of pilgrims gathered for afternoon prayers at a mosque built for policemen and their families living in a heavily fortified area.
“We have got some excellent leads, and based on these leads we have made some major arrests,” Peshawar police chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters.
“We cannot rule out internal assistance but as the investigation is still ongoing, I will not be able to share further details.”
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Investigators, including counter-terrorism and intelligence officials, are focusing on how the attackers managed to breach military and police checkpoints leading to the Police Lines district, a colonial-era city. Self-contained camp at the center of the which is located in the middle. – and lower-ranking police personnel and their families.
[1/6] Rescue workers search for victims after a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, on January 31, 2023. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had said that the attacker was in the front row of the prayer hall. The remains of the attacker have been recovered, provincial police chief Muazzam Jah Ansari told Reuters.
“We believe the attackers are not an organized group,” he added.
The most active militant group in the region, the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has denied responsibility for the attack, which has not yet been claimed by any group. Home Minister Rana Sanaullah told Parliament that a separate faction of the TTP was responsible.
The upper floor of the mosque collapsed due to the explosion. It was the deadliest attack in Peshawar since two suicide bombings at All Saints Church in September 2013, the deadliest attack on the country’s Christian minority.
Peshawar sits on the edge of Pashtun tribal lands, an area mired in violence for the past two decades.
The TTP is an umbrella group for anti-government Sunni and sectarian Islamist factions in Islamabad. The group has recently stepped up attacks against the police.
Reporting by Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Written by Miral Fahmy; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
