Rescue employees look at a broken portion on the website of Monday’s suicide bombing after authorities completed the rescue operation, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.
Credit score: AP Picture/Muhammad Sajjad
A suicide bomber who killed 101 individuals at a decades-old mosque in northwest Pakistan this week had disguised himself in a police uniform and didn’t increase suspicion amongst guards, the provincial police chief stated on Thursday.
Moazzam Jah Ansari stated the suicide bomber, who arrived with a bike to the mosque on a police compound, had been recognized. Police had been near arresting suspects in Monday’s assault, one of many deadliest ever in Peshawar, the capital within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Ansari offered no additional particulars about who was accountable, however Pakistan’s protection and inside ministers in speeches to Parliament this week blamed the Pakistani Taliban for orchestrating the bombing. They stated the insurgents had sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
“We will avenge the martyrdom of each and every policeman,” Ansari instructed a information convention.
Ansari stated those that are accountable for the assault, together with the mastermind and facilitators, can be arrested and punished beneath the legislation.
The blast collapsed the roof of the 50-year-old mosque, killing 101 individuals, principally policemen. 2 hundred twenty-five individuals had been injured. He stated six or seven policemen had been “martyred” by the bombing however most casualties had been triggered when the sprawling roof, which was supported by outdoors partitions however no pillars, caved in.
Footage launched by police reveals the suspected bomber disguised as a policeman strolling towards the compound with a bike, giving the impression that the car wasn’t working.
Greater than 300 worshippers had been praying within the Sunni mosque, with extra approaching, when the bomber set off his explosives vest. Ansari stated the attacker was not searched as a result of guards assumed that he was one among their colleagues.
“Yes, I admit that it was a security lapse and I take responsibility for it,” Ansari stated.
He dismissed stories that the mosque had been hit by a drone, or planted explosives.
“There is no truth in such speculations and claims,” Ansari stated. “It was a suicide bombing.”
Ansari spoke a day after dozens of law enforcement officials in a uncommon transfer joined a peace march organized by the members of civil society teams in Peshawar, demanding safety for themselves.
Hours after the bombing, Pakistan’s Protection Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and Inside Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan accused the Pakistani Taliban, recognized by the acronym TTP, of finishing up the assault. Of their speeches to Parliament, they stated militants operated from neighboring Afghan territory. Pakistan needs the Afghan Taliban to take motion towards the TTP group.
Shortly after the bombing, a TTP commander claimed duty, however greater than 10 hours after the assault the chief spokesman for the group distanced the TTP from the carnage, saying it was not its coverage to assault mosques.
On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed international minister, nevertheless, had requested Pakistani authorities to search for the explanations behind militant violence of their nation as a substitute of blaming Afghanistan. The feedback from Amir Khan Muttaqi got here after Pakistani officers stated the attackers who orchestrated Monday’s suicide bombing had been utilizing Afghan soil to focus on civilians and safety forces.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar after the bombing and vowed “stern action” towards these behind the assault. Pakistan, which is generally Sunni Muslim, has seen a surge in militant assaults since November when the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire with authorities forces.
The violence has elevated in Pakistan for the reason that Afghan Taliban seized energy in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops pulled overseas after 20 years of struggle.
The TTP is separate from however a detailed ally of the Afghan Taliban.
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