Bomb detonates near Peshawar mosque, killing 20 and injuring 90

AP
Jan 30, 2023, updated Jan 30, 2023

Authorities rush to get the wounded to hospital following the blast in Peshawar. Photo: AP

A powerful bomb has gone off near a mosque and police offices in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 90 worshippers.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing on Monday in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

Police officer Zafar Khan said rescuers were trying to get the wounded to a nearby hospital.

He said it appeared to have been a suicide bombing.

Tweet from @MeghUpdates

A survivor, 38-year-old police officer Meena Gul, said he was inside the mosque when the bomb went off.

He said he didn’t know how he survived unhurt. He could hear cries and screams after the bomb exploded, Officer Gul said.

Rescuers scrambled trying to remove mounds of debris from the mosque grounds and get to worshippers still trapped under the rubble, police said.

Mr Khan said rescuers are trying to get the wounded to a nearby hospital.

He said several of the wounded were listed in critical condition at a hospital and there were fears the death toll would rise.

Tweet from @ImranKhanPTI

Suspicion in such attacks falls most often on the Pakistani Taliban, which has in the past claimed similar bombings.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members in custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country’s former tribal regions.

Former PM Imran Khan tweeted that he strongly condemned ‘‘the terrorist suicide attack’’ and said it was ‘‘Imperative we improve our intelligence gathering and properly equip our police forces to combat the growing threat of terrorism’’.