Pakistan mosque bombing: Attacker was wearing military uniform, police say – National | 24CA News

A suicide bomber who killed 101 individuals at a mosque in northwest Pakistan this week had disguised himself in a police uniform and didn’t increase suspicion amongst guards, the provincial police chief mentioned on Thursday.

Moazzam Jah Ansari mentioned the bomber had been recognized and police have been near arresting members of the community that was behind Monday’s assault, one of many deadliest ever in Peshawar, the capital within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“We will avenge the martyrdom of each and every policeman,” Ansari instructed a news convention.

The blast collapsed the roof of the 50-year-old mosque, killing 101 individuals, principally policemen. Two hundred twenty-five individuals have been injured.

Ansari spoke a day after dozens of cops in a uncommon transfer joined a peace march organized by the members of civil society teams in Peshawar, demanding safety for themselves.

Hours after the bombing, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif accused the Pakistani Taliban, recognized by the acronym TTP, of finishing up the assault, saying they have been working from neighboring Afghan territory. Pakistan desires the Afghan Taliban to take motion towards the TTP group.

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Shortly after the bombing, a TTP commander claimed accountability, however greater than 10 hours after the assault the chief spokesman for the group distanced the TTP from the carnage, saying it was not its coverage to assault mosques.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed international minister, nonetheless, had requested Pakistani authorities to search for the explanations behind militant violence of their nation as an alternative of blaming Afghanistan. The feedback from Amir Khan Muttaqi got here after Pakistani officers mentioned the attackers who orchestrated Monday’s suicide bombing have been utilizing Afghan soil to focus on civilians and safety forces.

More than 300 worshippers have been praying within the Sunni mosque, with extra approaching, when the bomber set off his explosives vest. Ansari mentioned the attacker was not searched as a result of guards assumed that he was one in all their colleagues.

“Yes, I admit that it was a security lapse and I take responsibility for it,” Ansari mentioned.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar after the bombing and vowed “stern action” towards these behind the assault. Pakistan, which is generally Sunni Muslim, has seen a surge in militant assaults since November when the Pakistani Taliban ended a cease-fire with authorities forces.

The violence has elevated in Pakistan because the Afghan Taliban seized energy in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops pulled in a foreign country after 20 years of struggle.

The TTP is separate from however an in depth ally of the Afghan Taliban.

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