Pakistan mosque blast: Bomber used police uniform as disguise, official says

The man who bombarded a mosque within the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday utilized a police consistent to gain access to the area, police have stated.

The committing suicide bomber reportedly entered through the main entrance of the secure area where the mosque is situated.

Police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari mentioned they had CCTV footage revealing the male’s final movements, plus were closing in on the “terror network” responsible.

He or she also confirmed the head found at the website was the attacker’s.

Monday’s blast – one of the deadliest attacks within Pakistan in many years – took place in a 50-year-old mosque inside a high-security police zone called Police Outlines.

At least 100 individuals were killed, of whom most were police officers.

Officers failed to examine the attacker as they assumed he was one of these, Mr Ansari mentioned. “I admit it was a security lapse. Our men could not prevent it. This is my fault. ”

This individual explained that law enforcement had been able to track the bomber’s motorbike journey before the strike using CCTV video footage.

As the man parked his motorcycle, he or she was “in the police uniform and was wearing a mask and a helmet”. After entering the compound, the attacker requested a constable where the mosque was.

Mr Ansari – who else heads the push in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province — added that basketball bearings had been found which were used in the suicide jacket.

He said 10-12kg (22-26lb) of TNT explosives were utilized in the blast, which caused the mosque’s roof to fall on the hundreds who were praying in the constructing.

Police do not think the man was a “lone wolf”, and have recommended there is an entire network behind him.

The claim that the hard-line Islamist militant team Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out Monday’s bombing was later denied by the group, which blamed it on the commander of a breakaway faction.

In the past the particular TTP has refrained from claiming several attacks on mosques, schools or marketplaces, preferring to throw its violence like a war with security forces and not contrary to the Pakistani people.

In recent years attacks with the TTP and other militant groups have been increasing again in north-west Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban gained power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan says the forces are ready to take on the militants.

But the police remain ill-equipped to fight the particular highly trained and well-armed insurgents. Recent militant attacks include overrunning police stations : and in some cases, police failed to offer resistance.