Police chief says Peshawar mosque suicide bomber entered police precinct in uniform
A top police official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced on Thursday a suicide bomber who targeted a mosque in Peshawar had been identified through CCTV footage in which he could be seen entering the Police Lines in uniform.
The bomber blew himself up in a crowded mosque at the police facility during a prayer congregation on Monday afternoon, killing over a hundred people and injuring many more.
Police officials maintained on Wednesday they had found some promising leads after carefully gathering forensic evidence from the crime scene.
“I have identified the suicide bomber,” said Moazzam Jah Ansari, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s inspector general police, while addressing a news conference in Peshawar. “I have watched his (CCTV) footage and seen his face. He is the same suicide bomber whose severed head was found inside the mosque.” Ansari said the bomber rode a motorbike and had a helmet and face mask on.
“He was wearing police uniform,” he continued as he shared the
details of how the attacker entered the police precinct.
The provincial police chief said the suicide bomber had tampered with the chassis number for vehicle identification, though the police had managed to recover the required information and traced the bike.
He added that investigators were now trying to determine the militant network of the bomber and would also reach his facilitators.
Earlier, Ansari condemned “conspiracy theories” surrounding the incident after some people suspected the mosque was targeted in a drone strike or had endured a blast from an improvised explosive device.
“It is totally false it was a drone attack,” he said while asking journalists if they had seen a crater in the floor that would have been caused by an IED explosion. He added the authorities were cautiously proceeding with their investigations while promising to bring the people behind the attack to justice.
The police also urged the media and other individuals “with agenda” not to provoke police personnel to protest after some of them were reported to have demonstrated in the wake of the tragic incident.
The issue was also addressed in a notification by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Wednesday that pointed out such activities constituted disciplinary violation while adding the high command would try to address any grievances of the police personnel. “No one knows my children better than me,” Ansari said during the news conference while referring to uniformed men under his command. “Let me deal with them. Don’t provoke them to protest.”