Security officials inspect the site of a mosque blast inside the police headquarters in Peshawar on January 30, 2023. PHOTO AFP PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber at a mosque in Pakistan's Peshawar killed 32 people on Monday, the latest attack on police in the northwestern city where Islamist militants are active.
Hospital officials said 147 people were wounded, with many of them in critical condition.
Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif called the blast a suicide attack. There were at least 260 people in the mosque, police official Sikandar Khan said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which ripped through the mosque during noon prayers, causing a wall to collapse on top of worshippers. The provincial police force and counter-terrorism department are located inside a highly fortified compound.
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Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Geo TV that the terrorist was standing in the first row.
Footage from government broadcaster PTV showed police and residents trying to remove debris from the blast site and carry wounded people on their shoulders.
The attack was the worst since March last year, when a suicide bombing at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the Friday prayers killed at least 58 people and injured nearly 200. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Security personnel cordon-off the site of a mosque blast inside the police headquarters in Peshawar on January 30, 2023. PHOTO AFP Peshwar, which sits at the edge of Pakistan's tribal districts bordering Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban.
The group, known as Tehreek-e - Taliban Pakistan TTP, is an umbrella of Sunni and sectarian Islamist groups that want to overthrow the government and replace it with their own brand of Islamic governance.
Since the end of a peace deal with the Pakistani government last year, the TTP has stepped up attacks.
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In the last few months, TTP has targeted police. In December of this year, Islamist militants took over a counter-terrorism center in the northwestern region and took hostages to negotiate with government authorities.