Rescue operation continues after Pakistan blast that killed 92

Most of these killed in suicide bombing at a Peshawar mosque had been police, 52 injured folks stay in hospital.

A rescue and restoration operation was persevering with in Pakistan after a suicide bombing at a mosque within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar killed not less than 92 folks, most of them police officers.

Muhammad Asim, a spokesperson for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, advised Al Jazeera on Tuesday that not less than 170 folks had been additionally injured within the blast a day earlier. The overwhelming majority of these killed had been law enforcement officials. Fifty-two wounded folks remained in hospital, with six in a important situation, he mentioned.

Bilal Faizi, the chief rescue official, mentioned rescue groups had been nonetheless working on the web site the place extra folks might nonetheless be trapped. The suicide bombing brought about the roof of the mosque to break down, and rescuers have needed to take away mounds of particles to get better most of the our bodies, authorities mentioned.

Reporting from Peshawar, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder mentioned the operation had largely shifted to restoration.

“There has been a ceremonial send-off to those policemen who lost their lives, also funerals taking place across the province, because these policemen came from several districts – so there is mourning across the province,” he mentioned.

Meanwhile, questions have grown over how the attacker was in a position to entry the closely fortified space, which incorporates the headquarters of the provincial police pressure and a counterterrorism division, whereas carrying a suicide vest.

That adopted “credible intelligence reports” on January 21 that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) deliberate a wave of assaults in Peshawar and the broader Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Hyder reported.

Authorities haven’t decided who was behind the bombing, though shortly after the explosion Sarbakaf Mohmand, a TTP commander, claimed accountability for the assault in a submit on Twitter.

However, hours later, TTP spokesperson Mohammad Khurasani distanced the group from the bombing, saying it was not its coverage to focus on mosques, seminaries and spiritual locations. He added that these collaborating in such acts might face punitive motion underneath TTP’s coverage, however didn’t deal with why a TTP commander had claimed accountability for the bombing.

Ghulam Ali, the provincial governor within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, mentioned an investigation was underneath technique to decide “how the terrorist entered the mosque”.

“Yes, it was a security lapse,” he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar on Monday and promised to take “stern action” in opposition to these behind the assault.

“The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is no less than an attack on Pakistan,” he tweeted. He expressed his condolences to the households of the victims, saying their ache “cannot be described in words”.

Pakistan has seen a surge in assaults since November when the TTP ended a ceasefire with the federal government.

In early January, the TTP claimed one in all its members shot and killed two intelligence officers, together with the director of the counterterrorism wing of the nation’s military-based spy company Inter-Services Intelligence. Security officers mentioned on Monday the gunman in that assault was traced and killed in a shootout within the northwest of the nation, near the Afghan border.

While a separate group, the TTP is an in depth ally of the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP has waged a 15-year armed rebellion in opposition to the Pakistani authorities, which included a 2014 assault by a faction of the group on an army-run college in Peshawar that killed 154 folks, largely kids.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres known as the most recent bombing “particularly abhorrent” for focusing on a spot of worship, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric mentioned.

The assault comes as cash-strapped Pakistan continues to face a extreme financial disaster. It has sought an important instalment of $1.1bn from the International Monetary Fund – a part of its $6bn bailout bundle – to keep away from default. However, talks with the IMF have stalled in latest months.