The Pakistani authorities raised the death toll to 89 on Tuesday and the number of wounded to 157, mostly police officers, after the suicide attack committed yesterday at a mosque in northwest Pakistan, one of the worst terrorist attacks against the security forces. from this country.
“The number of deaths has reached 89,” while 57 injured out of a total of 157 continue to be treated at the hospital, Asim Khan, spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital in the city of Peshawar, told Efe on Tuesday, where the attack occurred. .
The attack took place around noon at a mosque in the Police Lines area, a residential and training center for police officers, which explains the high number of victims within this body. More than 300 worshipers were in the compound offering their usual afternoon prayers when the suicide bomber detonated the explosives, blowing off the roof of the mosque.
After more than 20 hours of rescue operations, forces continue to manually remove rubble from the site, where there could likely be even more bodies.
“We cannot use heavy machinery because we have to take into account the sanctity of any martyr or wounded who may be under the rubble,” Peshawar rescue services spokesman Bilal Faizi told Efe.
Security forces held funeral services yesterday for 27 of the officers killed in the attack, discharged with honors by Peshawar police, in coffins draped with the Pakistani flag and wreaths.
Although a message on a Twitter account associated with Pakistani Taliban commander Mohmand claimed responsibility for the attack, the veracity of this claim has not been independently corroborated.
In addition, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the main Pakistani Taliban group, categorically denied its involvement in the attack on a sacred space, an action that would go against the rules of the terrorist group.
“Regarding the Peshawar incident, we consider it necessary to clarify that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with this incident,” the fundamentalist group’s spokesman, Muhammed Khurasanirta, said in a statement.
According to the spokesman, any action in mosques, madrasas or Koranic schools, funerals and other holy places is a punishable offence.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief of Staff General Asim Munir visited Peshawar after the attack to visit the wounded and review on the spot the security situation in the region which has seen a dramatic increase in attacks in the last year.
“The magnitude of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is an attack on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed with a deep sense of mourning,” the prime minister said on Twitter after his visit.
“I have no doubt that terrorism is our main national security challenge,” he added.
Terrorist attacks and insurgent attacks have increased in recent months in Pakistan after several years of relative calm, largely due to the resurgence of the TTP.
The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has also carried out attacks in the past in Pakistan, one of the worst in 2018 against a rally in Balochistan, which caused 128 deaths and 122 injuries.
Attacks began to decline in 2014 following a crackdown by Pakistani authorities, but signs of a resurgence are becoming clearer as relations between Pakistan and an Afghanistan under the interim rule of the Taliban, which seized power in Iraq, worsen. August 2021.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project