PESHAWAR: A group of suicide bombers struck a mosque during Friday prayers in a posh locality of the city, killing at least 20 people and injuring 30 others.
The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Shia mosque is located in Hayatabad Township’s Phase-5 where usually tight security is maintained and people are frisked while crossing a barrier outside the main gate of the mosque.
The attack took place about two weeks after a suicide attack killed 60 people at a mosque in Shikarpur town of Sindh.
DSP Naveed Bangash of Kohat was among those killed in the Friday attack. He was posted in UNDP on deputation and had come to the mosque for Friday prayers.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Nasir Khan Durrani told journalists that four to five militants had entered the mosque by scaling a wall after removing the razor wire.
One of them blew himself up in the mosque’s veranda and two inside the building. One of them was captured by people and shot dead by a security guard. His suicide vest was defused by bomb disposal unit personnel.
The IG said the mosque was located close to the border with Khyber Agency and one could reach there from the tribal area in a few minutes.
He said the attack might be a reaction to the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb and Khyber-I military operations against terrorists.
He said investigators were collecting evidence and information would be shared with the media.
Taliban claim responsibility for carnage
AIG Shafqat Malik, who heads the bomb disposal unit, said three suicide jackets had been exploded. Three hand-grenades were found at the scene. “We have also found six legs of the bombers and an intact body,” he said.
According to a senior police officer, the attackers came in a car (LEE-1632 Lahore) and set it on fire before entering the mosque. He said the attack was followed by intense firing and some of the victims might have suffered bullet injuries.
Peshawar SSP Dr Mian Saeed said that although there was no alert about the attack, police had taken adequate security measures and deployed six personnel, in addition to a mobile van, in the area to keep an eye on suspicious people and vehicles.
Besides, he said the mosque had its own security guards. He said the attackers were wearing militia-colour uniform to pose themselves as personnel of Khasadar Force.
“The terrorists did not enter the mosque through the main gate. They came from a sidewall by cutting razor wire on top of the boundary wall,” the SSP said, adding that it would be premature to say at the moment from which area the attackers had come.
Mausam Ali of Parachinar, who studies in Peshawar University’s economic department, said he was in the last row and escaped unhurt.
“When the first blast took place we asked people to lie down on the floor and they did. Otherwise, the number of casualties would have been higher,” he said, adding that there were about 300 people, including children, in the mosque.
Imtiaz Hussain, an intermediate student, said five of the injured were children who were profusely bleeding.
He said some of the injured had been taken to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in private vehicles before ambulances of Al Khidmat Foundation, Edhi Welfare Trust and Rescue Services 1122 reached the place.
The blast damaged the mosque’s building; windowpanes were smashed and doors broken. The power supply was affected.
“We have very limited capacity and, therefore, sent four of the injured to Khyber Teaching Hospital and three to Lady Reading Hospital,” an official at the Hayatabad Medical Complex said.
TTP spokesman Umer Khwarasani said in an email statement that the attack was a revenge for Dr Usman, a militant who was hanged in December. He said attacks would continue.
Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015
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