Rescuers evacuate wounded from Shiite mosque affected by suicide attack in Peshawar, March 4, 2022 MUHAMMAD SAJJAD / AP
At least fifty-six people were killed and 194 others injured in a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, on Friday (March 4th). The blast came minutes before the start of a week-long prayer service at a mosque on a narrow street in the Kocha Risaldar district near the historic Kisa Kuani Bazaar.
“The injured include fifty critically ill patients,” said Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. City Police Chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan said earlier that he feared the death toll would rise further. “ Two assailants shot at police at the mosque’s main entrance. “One policeman died instantly and the other was seriously injured,” he said.
Man “killed people one by one before exploding”
“I was right in front of the mosque when I saw a man shoot two policemen before entering the mosque. “A few seconds later, I heard a big bang,” said resident Zahid Khan. Another witness, Ali Asgar, said he saw a man “open fire with a pistol” inside the mosque and “kill people one by one and then explode”. A journalist from Agence France-Presse saw dismembered bodies at the scene, and emergency services and residents worked to help the victims, carrying them on their shoulders.
Mohammed Asim Khan confirmed the death toll at 30. “We have declared a state of emergency in hospitals and more victims are being brought in,” he said. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan “strongly condemned” the attack.
Peshawar, located about 50 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan, was devastated by almost daily attacks in the first half of 2010, but security there has improved significantly in recent years. The last attack of this magnitude took place there in November 2018, when at least 31 people were killed in a suicide attack on a market in the city. In recent months, Peshawar has seen mostly targeted attacks on security forces.
Pakistan has been facing the return to power of the Pakistani Taliban Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) for some time, fueled by the rise to power of their counterparts in Afghanistan in August. The TTP, a movement different from that of Afghanistan’s new leaders but which has common roots with it, has claimed responsibility for several attacks since the beginning of the year.
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