Suicide Bombing Kills Dozens At A Mosque In Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide blast inside the Police Line Mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar on January 30. Most of the casualties were police officers.
Eyewitnesses told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that suicide bombers standing in the first row behind the imam detonated explosive vests as worshipers, including many policemen and other officials, had gathered for afternoon prayers.
The intensity of the blast caused large parts of the two-story building in the compound of the city's police headquarters to collapse.
Hospital officials said that many of the wounded were in critical condition.
Rescuers plead for assistance as they scramble to find survivors under the collapsed roof. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said "stern action" would be taken against those who were behind the bombing.
An injured victim talks on his mobile phone after getting treatment outside a hospital in Peshawar. The incident comes nearly a year after a suicide bombing killed 63 people in a Shi'a mosque in Peshawar.
People identify the bodies of relatives killed in the suicide bombing.
A man sits beside a coffin containing a relative.
While another man mourns a family member who was killed in the bombing.