At least 50 worshipers were martyred and more than 100 were injured when a powerful suicide blast ripped through an imambargah in Peshwar’s Kocha Risaldar area during Friday prayers.
Mohammad Asim, spokesman of the Lady Reading Hospital, where victims have were brought, said they had received more than 50 bodies.
Speaking to the media, CCPO Peshawar Muhammad Aijaz Khan also confirmed the martyr toll of at least 50and said that it was a suicide bombing.
He elaborated that according to initial reports, two attackers tried to enter the mosque. The police officers present on duty were fired at, which resulted in the death of one cop, while the other was seriously injured.
The CCPO said that according to initial reports, two attackers tried to enter a mosque in the city’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar and fired at the policemen standing guard.
As a result, one policeman was martyred while another was critically injured, the CCPO said, adding that one of the attackers was killed in the gunfight. The remaining attacker then ran inside the mosque and detonated a bomb, he said.
Police official Waheed Khan told AP that the explosion occurred as worshippers had collected in the Kocha Risaldar mosque for Friday prayers.
Later, talking to media at the blast site, Peshawar SSP Operations Haroon Rasheed Khan said the explosion was a suicide blast and that two policemen had been martyred in the attack.
He said there were two attackers but only one of them was a suicide bomber. The SSP also told the media there was no “threat alert”.
