It left as many as 225 wounded, some nonetheless in severe situation in hospital, in response to Kashif Aftab Abbasi, a senior officer in Peshawar.
More than 300 worshippers had been praying within the mosque, with extra approaching, when the bomber set off his explosives vest on Monday morning, officers stated.
The explosion blew off a part of the roof, and what was left quickly caved in, injuring many extra, in response to Zafar Khan, a police officer.
Rescuers needed to take away mounds of particles to achieve worshippers nonetheless trapped beneath the rubble.
More our bodies had been retrieved in a single day and early Tuesday, in response to Mohammad Asim, a authorities hospital spokesman in Peshawar, and a number of other of these critically injured died.
“Most of them were policemen,” Asim stated of the victims.
Bilal Faizi, the chief rescue official, stated rescue groups had been nonetheless working Tuesday on the web site as extra individuals are believed trapped inside.
Mourners had been burying the sufferer at totally different graveyards within the metropolis and elsewhere.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating how the bomber was capable of attain the mosque, which is in a walled compound, inside a excessive safety zone with different authorities buildings.
“Yes, it was a security lapse,” stated Ghulam Ali, the provincial governor within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
Abbasi, the official who gave the newest casualty tolls, concurred.
“There was a security lapse and the inspector-general of the police has set up an inquiry committee, which will look into all aspects of the bombing,” he stated.
“Action will be taken against those whose negligence” prompted the assault.
Talat Masood, a retired military common and senior safety analyst stated Monday’s suicide bombing confirmed “negligence.”
“When we know that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is active, and when we know that they have threatened to carry out attacks, there should have been more security at the police compound in Peshawar,” he instructed The Associated Press on Tuesday, referring to a militant group also called the Pakistani Taliban or TTP.
Kamran Bangash, a provincial secretary-general with opposition social gathering Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf referred to as for an investigation and stated Pakistan will proceed to face political instability as long as the present authorities is in energy.
“The current government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has failed to improve the economy and law and order situation, and it should resign to pave the way for snap parliamentary elections,” he stated.
The army’s media wing declined an Associated Press interview request for the chief of military workers. Asim Munir, who took workplace in November, has but to do any media appearances.
Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar after the bombing and vowed “stern action” in opposition to these behind the assault.
“The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is no less than an attack on Pakistan,” he tweeted.
On Tuesday he dismissed criticism of his authorities and name for unity.
“Through their despicable actions, terrorists want to spread fear & paranoia among the masses & reverse our hard-earned gains against terrorism & militancy,” he tweeted.
“My message to all political forces is one of unity against anti-Pakistan elements. We can fight our political fights later.”
Authorities haven’t decided who was behind the bombing.
Shortly after the explosion, TTP commander Sarbakaf Mohmand claimed duty for the assault in a publish on Twitter.
But hours later, TTP spokesperson Mohammad Khurasani distanced the group from the bombing, saying it was not its coverage to focus on mosques, seminaries and spiritual locations, including that these participating in such acts might face punitive motion beneath TTP’s coverage.
His assertion didn’t handle why a TTP commander had claimed duty for the bombing.
The Pakistani Taliban are the dominant militant group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Peshawar has been the scene of frequent assaults.
But the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, a regional affiliation of the Islamic State group and a rival of the Taliban, has additionally been behind lethal assaults in Pakistan in recent times.
Overall, violence has elevated because the Afghan Taliban seized energy in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021, as US and NATO troops pulled overseas after 20 years of conflict.
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The TTP is separate from however an in depth ally of the Afghan Taliban.
It has waged an insurgency in Pakistan up to now 15 years, looking for stricter enforcement of Islamic legal guidelines, the discharge of its members in authorities custody and a discount within the Pakistani army presence in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province it has lengthy used as its base.
Earlier this month, the Pakistani Taliban claimed one in all its members shot and killed two intelligence officers, together with the director of the counterterrorism wing of the nation’s military-based spy company Inter-Services Intelligence.
Security officers stated on Monday the gunman was traced and killed in a shootout within the northwest, close to the Afghan border.
In 2014, a Pakistani Taliban faction attacked an army-run faculty in Peshawar and killed 154, principally schoolchildren.
The Taliban-run Afghan Foreign Ministry stated it was “saddened to learn that numerous people lost their lives” in Peshawar and condemned assaults on worshippers as opposite to the teachings of Islam.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who’s on a go to to the Middle East, tweeted his condolences, saying the bombing in Peshawar was a “horrific attack.”
“Terrorism for any reason at any place is indefensible,” he stated.
Pakistan can also be contending with political and financial crises within the wake of the floods and a disputed election.
Condemnations additionally got here from the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad, in addition to the US Embassy, which stated that the “United States stands with Pakistan in condemning all forms of terrorism.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred to as the bombing “particularly abhorrent” for concentrating on a spot of worship, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan additionally expressed his condolences, calling the bombing a “terrorist suicide attack.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
