Peshawar: With more bodies being recovered, the death toll in yesterday’s suicide bomb attack at Peshawar Police Lines shot up by this evening to 100, over 90 percent of whom were policemen.
The death count is likely to rise further as 53 people were still hospitalised, 7 of them in critical condition.
The Pakistani security establishment suffered perhaps the worst attack when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque located inside the high-security Police Lines in Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province yesterday at around 1.40 pm local time (2.10 pm IST).
The explosion was triggered just when the Zohr prayers began, tossing bodies around and bringing down the roof of the prayer hall where around 300 people, mostly police and Army personnel, were present, according to officials and witnesses.
According to the police, around 10-12 kgs of explosives was used in the attack that has shaken entire Pakistan.
By last night, there was confirmation of 59 deaths and 160 injured people.
Most of the deaths were caused by the collapse of the roof, with many people getting buried under the ruble.
There were between 300 to 400 policemen in the compound at that time for prayers, Peshawar Police Chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told the media, adding that the policemen constituted over 90 percent of the victims.
?he search and rescue operation took almost 24 hours to be completed, Peshawar Divisional Commissioner Riaz Mehsud said.
The Pakistani establishment had accused Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the act but the Islamist outfit issued a statement, denying its involvement in the attack.
Authorities are trying to find out how the suicide bomber, carrying so much of explosives, gained access to the Mosque inside the Police Lines which is a high-security zone.
