Mosque blast was revenge against police: Top cop

A suicide blast at a mosque inside a Pakistan police headquarters was a targeted revenge attack, a police chief said on Tuesday, as rescue efforts ended with the death toll standing at 100.

Between 300 and 400 policemen had gathered for afternoon prayers at the compound’s mosque on Monday in the provincial capital Peshawar when an entire wall and most of the roof were blown out, showering rubble on officers. “We are on the frontline taking action against militants and that is why we were targeted,” city police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan said. “The purpose was to demoralise us as a force.”

The head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province police force, Moazzam Jah Ansari, said that a suicide bomber had entered the mosque as a guest, carrying 1012 kilogrammes of “explosive material in bits and pieces”.

Interior minister Rana Sanaullah told Pakistan’s National Assembly the dead included 97 police officers and three civilians, with 27 patients still in critical condition.

23 arrested

Police have detained 23 people in connection with the blast, a senior official who asked not to be named said on Wednesday. “We have detained people from the police line (headquarters) to get to the bottom of how the explosive material made its way in and to see if any police officials were also involved in the attack,” the senior official said. Police said they could not rule out the possibility that the bomber had internal assistance evading security checks.

“We can’t rule out internal assistance but since the investigation is still in progress, I will not be able to share more details,” Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan said. Authorities are investigating how a major security breach could happen in one of the most tightly controlled areas of the city.