CNN
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The Pakistani Taliban has claimed accountability for a lethal blast in a mosque in Peshawar on Monday, the newest assault on town in northwest Pakistan.
A strong explosion killed a minimum of 61 individuals and left about 157 injured, in accordance with Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan.
Rescue operations are actually underway within the mosque, which is located inside a police compound and is generally attended by regulation enforcement officers.
Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani – two officers from the Pakistani Taliban, generally known as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) – put out statements saying the blast was “revenge” for the dying of TTP militant Khalid Khorasani final 12 months.
The TTP is a US-designated overseas terrorist group working in each Afghanistan and Pakistan. CNN can’t independently confirm the group’s claims.
In an announcement to CNN, Khan, the Peshawar police chief, earlier stated the incident contained in the Police Traces Mosque was “in all probability a suicide assault,” echoing Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“The brutal killing of Muslims prostrating earlier than Allah is towards the teachings of the Quran,” Sharif stated in an announcement, including that “focusing on the Home of Allah is proof that the attackers don’t have anything to do with Islam.”
“Terrorists need to create concern by focusing on those that carry out the responsibility of defending Pakistan,” the prime minister continued.
“Those that battle towards Pakistan will probably be erased from the web page.”
Sharif added that “your complete nation and establishments are united to finish terrorism” and that there’s a “complete technique” within the works with a view to restore regulation and order within the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place Peshawar is positioned.
The prime minister went to Peshawar following the lethal blast and visited Woman Studying Hospital to satisfy these injured, his workplace stated.
“Simply returned from Peshawar. The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. That is a minimum of an assault on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed by a deep sense of grief. I’ve little doubt terrorism is our foremost nationwide safety problem,” Sharif posted on Twitter.
“My message to the perpetrators of at this time’s despicable incident is which you could’t underestimate the resolve of our individuals,” he added.
Pakistan’s former chief Imran Khan, whose occasion Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf holds the provincial authorities of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, additionally condemned the blast saying in a tweet that “it’s crucial we enhance our intelligence gathering & correctly equip our police forces to fight the rising risk of terrorism.”
The town of Peshawar – which is positioned on the fringe of Pakistan’s tribal districts that border Afghanistan – has steadily been the positioning of assaults by the TTP and different militant teams.
The Islamic State (ISIS) stated they had been accountable for an assault on a Shia mosque in Peshawar in March 2022. That blast killed a minimum of 61 individuals and injured one other 196.
TTP’s central spokesman Muhammad Khurasani is but to touch upon Monday’s assault.