PESHAWAR: Up to 34 people were killed and dozens of others wounded when an explosion ripped through a mosque inside a compound where the headquarters of the provincial police force are located in Peshawar, the commissioner of the northwestern city said.
Police said up to 350 worshipers were inside the mosque for afternoon prayers when the bomber detonated his explosives.
“It was a big explosion that totally damaged the mosque’s roof but it will be premature to say whether it was a suicide explosion,” Commissioner Peshawar Riaz Mehsud told Arab News, putting the casualties at 34 and number of wounded at 150. “Security officials are investigating the nature of the blast.”
“We haven’t yet confirmed how many policemen are dead and wounded but I think 90 percent casualties are of police personnel because most of those offering prayers in the mosque were policemen,” Mehsud added.
Muhammad Ijaz Khan, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), said many people, including policemen, were still trapped under the debris.
“We can’t as of yet determined what caused the explosion but it was a security lapse,” Khan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Pakistani Taliban group have recently carried out similar attacks, with assaults on the rise since last November when the group called off a ceasefire signed with the government in May.
Muhammad Asim, a spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the city’s largest medical facility, told Arab News people were still being pulled out of the rubble and being brought to the hospital, so the death toll could rise.
Ahmad Khan, a police constable who was inside the mosque when the blast occurred, said the roof collapsed after the explosion.
“It was the time for Zuhr (afternoon) prayers,” Khan said. “I was in the second row among worshippers when the blast took place. The roof of the mosque collapsed with many worshippers trapped but I managed to come out with small injuries.”
Akbar Khan, an official at the Edhi charity in Peshawar, estimated that 50 people, including policemen, were still trapped under the debris.
Soon after the blast, the provincial health department declared a state of emergency at the city’s hospitals.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged people, especially followers of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ruling party, to donate blood to those injured in suicide attack.
“Reach Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, and contribute to saving precious human lives,” he tweeted.