56 killed in Peshawar blast amid Australia cricket Test in Rawalpindi
At least 56 people were killed and 194 wounded by a suicide bomb at a mosque in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, the deadliest attack in the country since 2018, AFP reported.
The blast — claimed by ISIS — tore through the Kocha Risaldar area of the city moments before Friday prayers were to start, shattering the interior and showering the streets with broken glass.
It came on the first day of a cricket Test match in Rawalpindi — around 190 km to the east — between Pakistan and Australia, who have not toured the country in nearly a quarter of a century because of security concerns.
Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, said the death toll had climbed to 56, the deadliest since a July 2018 blast — claimed by the local chapter of the IS group — killed 149 people at an election rally.
He said 50 of the wounded were in critical condition.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, told AFP the blast was a “suicide attack” and numerous witnesses recounted the moment of detonation.
Ali Asghar said he saw a man enter the mosque before Friday prayers and open fire with a pistol, picking out the worshippers “one-by-one.”
He “then blew himself up”, Asghar said.
“I saw a man firing at two policemen before he entered the mosque. Seconds later, I heard a big bang,” said another witness, Zahid Khan.
The head of Peshawar’s bomb disposal unit, Rab Nawaz Khan, told AFP the attacker detonated five to eight kilograms (two to four pounds) of “highly explosive TNT” packed with ball bearings to amplify the damage.
An AFP reporter saw body parts strewn at the blast site, where desperate family members were held back by police.
Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP two attackers were involved.
He said two police officers were shot at the entrance of the mosque.
“One policeman died on the spot while the other was critically injured,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted that he was “personally monitoring operations” and that the government had “all info regarding origins of where the terrorists came from”, adding they were “going after them with full force.”
In Brussels, a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the attack a “heinous crime” and pledged continued support to Pakistan in its counter-terrorism efforts.