At least 25 people were killed and 120 others injured in an explosion on Monday (January 30th) at a mosque inside the police headquarters in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, AFP has learned. from an administrative source.
“So far 25 people have been killed and 120 injured […]. Other bodies have been taken out [of the mosque]. Right now our number one priority is to rescue people trapped under the rubble,” he said. AFP Shaffiullah Khan, a senior administrative official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
Part of the roof and a wall of the mosque collapsed under the blast of the explosion, noted an AFP journalist, who also saw two bodies being placed in an ambulance.
In March 2022, a suicide attack claimed by EI-K, the local branch of the Islamic State (IS) group, in a Shiite mosque in Peshawar left 64 dead.
According to the police, the suicide bomber was an Afghan national living in Pakistan with his family for several years, who had prepared the attack in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been facing deteriorating security for some months, especially since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
After several years of relative calm, the attacks have resumed with renewed vigor, carried out by the Pakistani Taliban of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the regional branch of the Islamic State group (EI-K), or separatist groups Baluchis.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of letting these groups use Afghan soil to plan their attacks, which Kabul has repeatedly denied.
With AFP
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