At least 25 dead and 120 injured in explosion in Pakistan

UPDATE DAY

At least 25 people were killed and 120 others injured in an explosion on Monday at a mosque inside the police headquarters in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, local authorities told AFP a hospital spokesperson. 

“We have received bodies of dead people, but we will give the number later,” spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, Muhammad Asim Khan, told AFP, adding that 39 injured people had died. also been hospitalized.

“We are seeking further information, but the explosion took place at prayer time,” confirmed to AFP, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, the chief Peshawar Police.

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Part of the roof and a wall of the mosque collapsed under the blast and an operation was underway to rescue people trapped under the debris, noted an AFP journalist, who also saw two bodies to be placed in an ambulance.

In March 2022, a suicide bombing claimed by I-K, the local branch of the Islamic State (IS) group, in a Shiite mosque in Peshawar killed 64 dead. According to the police, the suicide bomber was an Afghan national living in Pakistan with his family for several years, who had prepared the attack in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been confronted for some months, in particular since the seizure of the power by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, to a deterioration in security.

After several years of relative calm, attacks have resumed with renewed vigor, led by the Pakistani Taliban of Tehreek-e -Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the regional branch of the Islamic State group (EI-K), or Baloch separatist groups.

Pakistan blames the Taliban for letting these groups use Afghan soil to plan their attacks , which Kabul has repeatedly denied.