At Least 100 People Has Died After A Bomb Blast In A Pakistan Mosque
At least 100 people has died after a bomb blast in a Pakistan mosque on Tuesday. The incident happened after a suicide bomber blew up a mosque in Peshawar, in the northwest of Pakistan. This is one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years, and it comes as the country is facing what one analyst called "a national security crisis."
Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for the city's Lady Reading Hospital, said that at least 100 people had died after the blast at the mosque in the police compound on Monday. Inspector General of Peshawar Police Moazim Jah Ansari said that police think a suicide bomber used 12 kilograms (26.5 pounds) of explosives. The attack left 217 injured, Ansari added.
Nasarullah Khan, a police officer who survived the explosion, said he saw "a huge burst of flames" before being surrounded by a cloud of black dust. Khan said that the explosion broke his foot, and for three hours he was stuck in the rubble.
“The ceiling fell in … the space in between the ceiling and wall is where I managed to survive,” he said.
As rescue workers sifted through the rubble of the mosque, which was mostly destroyed when people, mostly police officers, went to evening prayers on Monday, hope for finding survivors were fading. Photos and videos show that the powerful blast broke the mosque's walls into pieces and broke the glass windows and paneling.
COPYRIGHT_BP: Published on https://bingepost.com/at-least-100-people-has-died-after-a-bomb-blast-in-a-pakistan-mosque/ by Cecilia Jones on 2023-02-01T02:13:46.759Z
Bilal Faizi, a rescue spokesperson, said Tuesday:
“„We are not expecting anyone alive to be found. Mostly dead bodies are being recovered.
- Bilal Faizi, a rescue spokesperson
The blast on Monday is the latest sign that security is getting worse in Peshawar. Peshawar is the capital of the troubled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), attack the city often.
The US has labeled the TTP as a foreign terrorist group that works in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, when a year-long ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan's government broke down, threatened more violence in Pakistan and could have made things worse between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At first, on Monday, TTP officials Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani said the blast was "revenge" for the death of TTP militant Khalid Khorasani last year. But the main person who spoke for the TTP later denied that the group had anything to do with the attack.
According to TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani in a statement on Monday:
“„Regarding the Peshawar incident, we consider it necessary to clarify that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with this incident. According to our laws and general constitution, any action in mosques, madrasas, funerals grounds and other sacred places is an offense.
- Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani
Pakistan: Peshawar tightens security as death toll from mosque bombing rises | WION Shorts
The Pakistani government says they are looking into both claims, but they have not confirmed either one. Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, said the attack was wrong and that the people who did it would be punished.
A statement from the Pakistani military says that Munir told commanders to put their attention on fighting terrorism and to work with intelligence and law enforcement agencies across the country with "renewed resolve." He said that this coordination would keep going until there was "sustainable peace."
Mohammad Aijaz Khan, the head of police in Peshawar, said on Monday that the explosion at the Police Lines Mosque was "probably a suicide attack." He was repeating what Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said.
Sharif said that killing Muslims who are on their knees in front of Allah is against what the Quran says. He also said that attacking the House of Allah shows that the attackers have nothing to do with Islam. Rights groups have condemned the deadly attack, which has made people worry about more violence in a country where safety is getting worse.
In a statement released on Monday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that the attack could have been prevented if the “state heeded earlier warnings from civil society about extremist outfits in the province.”
According to the statement:
“„Ill-equipped law enforcement personnel continue to be targeted in incidents that dearly cost civilian and police lives. We demand the state take action now.
- The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Madiha Afzal, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that the TTP and other terrorist groups are now more dangerous because the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021.
“The TTP has also been emboldened by a Pakistani state that has had a shaky, uncertain response to the group in the last couple of years,” she said, adding a “sloppy policy toward terrorist groups has been more or less consistent across governments in Pakistan since the mid-2000s.”
She also said that negotiations with the militants have failed many times because these groups are fundamentally against the Pakistani state and constitution.
“This is now a national security crisis for Pakistan once again. The solution has to be a concerted military operation (against the TTP),” she said. “But that is now complicated by the fact that the TTP can go across the border into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.”
Conclusion
The attack also comes at a bad time for Pakistan, which has been struggling with a high cost of living as food and fuel shortages cause chaos in the country of 220 million people. Sharif's government has had a hard time getting the country's economy back on track after deadly floods killed more than 1,500 people and flooded several villages last year.
