More than 60 people have been reported killed and about 150 others wounded in a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials said. There are fears the death toll could rise even further.
Medical emergency
While confirming the casualties Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Mehsood said that the administration has declared an emergency at hospitals across the city and injured persons are being provided with the best medical facilities.
The provincial health department, while announcing a “medical emergency” in the city in the wake of the Police Lines Peshawar bomb blast, asked the health facilities to remain on red alert till further orders.
“All the doctors and support staff in the government health facilities including MTIs in district Peshawar are directed to remain on red alert to cope with the emergencies, till further orders,” the notification issued in this regard.
Policemen and officers among martyred
Most of the casualties were policemen and police officers since the mosque was located within a police compound. It is unclear how the suicide bomber managed to go deep inside the mosque as the police compound is in a high-security zone in Peshawar, along with several government buildings.
Rescuers scrambled to remove mounds of debris from the mosque grounds and get to worshippers still trapped under the rubble, police said.
CM directs to speed up relief activities
Caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Muhammad Azam Khan instructed rescue organizations to speed up relief activities. He urged the concerned authorities to ensure immediate measures to transfer the injured to the hospital and provide timely medical assistance.
Condemnations pour in
President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi, calling the Police lines attack “heinous and cowardly”, urged to find and punish the perpetrators.
PM Shehbaz also strongly condemned the blast, and said the terrorists are trying to “instill fear” by targeting those who are performing their duties of defending Pakistan. He assured the people that the coalition government will take strict action against those involved. He further said that a blast inside a mosque proves that those behind this act of terrorism have “nothing to do with Islam.”
“These terrorists are trying to instil fear by targeting those who perform the duty of defending Pakistan,” he said, assuring the people that the coalition government will take strict action against those involved.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but TTP has been blamed in similar suicide attacks in the past.
