More than 30 people have been killed and about 150 others wounded in an explosion targeting police at a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to officials.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast on Monday.
Muhammed Asim, Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson in Peshawar, told Al Jazeera at least 32 people were killed and more than 70 injured people were brought in for treatment. A Peshawar police official told Al Jazeera about 150 people were wounded in total.
The mosque is inside a highly fortified compound that includes the headquarters of the provincial police force and a counterterrorism department.
Authorities said part of the building collapsed and that many people were feared to be trapped under the rubble.
Peshawar’s police chief, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, said in a televised statement that the capacity of the main hall of the mosque was nearly 300 and it was “nearly full” at the time of the explosion.
“We cannot at the moment confirm there was a suicide attacker but we need to conduct more investigations,” he said. “However, there is a possibility of there being a suicide bomber.”
The mosque is within Peshawar’s Police Lines, which is part of the city’s red zone where a number of important government installations are, including the Chief Minister House, Governor House, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly building.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said emerging details suggested that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Source: aljazeera.com
