PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in Pakistan’s heavily fortified security complex on Monday, killing 47 people.
Police said the attackers passed through several barricades manned by security forces and entered the “Red Zone” complex, home to police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar.
“It was a suicide bomber,” Peshawar police chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. At least he had 47 killed and 176 wounded, many seriously.
It comes a day before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation to Islamabad started talks on financial opening to the South Asian economy, which is suffering from a balance of payments crisis.
Officials said the bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers.
An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help.
Khan said the mosque hall was packed with up to 400 worshipers, and that most of the dead were police officers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the worst in Peshawar since March 2022 when an Islamic State suicide bombing killed at least 58 people in a Shi’ite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers. Rescuers search for survivors after a suicide attack on a mosque in Peshawar.
Defense Minister Khawadja Asif told Geo TV that the bomber was in the front row of believers.
Police officer Mushtak Khan, who suffered a head injury, told reporters from his hospital bed, “When the prayer leader said ‘Allah is great,’ there was a loud noise.”
“The bang was so deafening that I didn’t know what had happened. He threw me off the balcony. The walls and roof collapsed. Thank God he saved me. ”
The blast collapsed the top floor of the mosque, trapping dozens of worshipers in the rubble. Live television footage showed rescuers cutting through the collapsed roof and descending to tend to victims trapped in the rubble.
Governor Haji Ghuram Ali said: “I don’t know how many there are.”
“The scale of human tragedy is unimaginable,” Sharif said. “This is nothing but an attack on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed with grief. Terrorism is arguably the greatest challenge to national security.”
Witnesses described the chaotic scene as police and rescuers rushed to take the wounded to the hospital.
Sharif, who called on party members to donate blood to hospitals, said those who attacked Muslims during prayers had nothing to do with Islam.
In a statement, the Washington embassy said, “The US mission to Pakistan extends its deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the horrific attack.”
Peshawar, on the outskirts of Pakistan’s tribal quarters on the border with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, is frequently attacked by Islamic extremist groups, including Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban.
