At least 61 people were killed and around 150 injured, mostly police officers, in an alleged attack on Monday at a mosque inside the police headquarters in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan.
The explosion occurred at prayer time in this extremely sensitive place in the city, located about fifty kilometers from the border with Afghanistan. She pushed the government to place the whole country on high alert.
A rescue operation was immediately launched to free the people trapped from the rubble, the roof and a wall of the building having collapsed under the blast of the explosion.
“So far, we have recovered 61 bodies and 60 injured are receiving medical treatment. Dozens of other injured people have been taken to other hospitals in the city,” Muhammad Asim Khan, spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“A lot of policemen are buried under the debris,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP, according to whom 300 to 400 people are usually present inside the mosque at the time of the day. prayer.
A spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar told AFP that the death toll, previously 33, had risen to 47 and at least 150 injured.
An AFP reporter saw bloodied wounded being taken out of the damaged building and the bodies of apparently dead people being taken away in ambulances.
The police headquarters in Peshawar is one of the best policed areas in the city. It also houses the premises of various intelligence agencies.
According to the police, the explosion occurred in the second row of worshipers gathered for prayer. Bomb squads were on hand to examine the possibility that it was caused by a suicide bomber.
“People were screaming”
The capital and the rest of the country, particularly on the border with Afghanistan, have been placed under even heightened security alert. In Islamabad, snipers were positioned on some buildings and at entry points to the city.
“The terrorists want to create panic by targeting those who are fulfilling their duty to defend Pakistan,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement. “Those who fight Pakistan will be wiped off the face of the earth. »
Shahid Ali, a 47-year-old policeman who survived the explosion, told AFP that the detonation came seconds after the imam had started the prayer.
“I saw black smoke rising in the sky. I ran outside to save my life,” he said. “The screams of people still echo in my head. They were screaming for help. »
This incident took place on the same day that the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was due to pay an official visit to Islamabad. This was canceled at the last moment on Monday, officially due to rainy weather.
In New York, the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres let it be known, through the voice of his spokesman, that he “strongly condemns” this “suicide attack”.
“It is particularly despicable that such an attack should occur in a place of worship,” he added.
In March 2022, a suicide attack claimed by EI-K, the regional branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), in a Shiite mosque in Peshawar left 64 dead. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since 2018.
Targeted attacks
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.
Peshawar was ravaged by near-daily attacks during the first half of the 2010s, but security there had improved greatly in recent years.
In recent months, the city has mostly seen targeted attacks aimed primarily at security forces.
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 vigour, led by the Pakistani Taliban of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the EI-K or Baloch separatist groups.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of letting these groups use Afghan soil to plan their attacks, which Kabul has repeatedly denied.
The TTP, a movement distinct from that of the new Afghan leaders but which shares common roots with it, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months.