— Police closed in on suspects, will arrest them ‘in a day or two’, Rasheed says
— IS-affiliate claims responsibility for attack, says bomber was Afghan
— Taliban condemn attack, but refuse to comment on bomber’s nationality
PESHAWAR: Officials vowed Saturday to hunt down and arrest the masterminds behind a deadly mosque attack in Peshawar a day earlier claimed by an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State militant group.
The assault killed 62 people and wounded nearly 200. The death toll was likely to continue to rise, said Asim Khan, spokesman for Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital.
At least four of 38 patients still hospitalised are in critical condition, Khan said.
In a statement, IS said the lone suicide bomber was from neighbouring Afghanistan. He shot two police guarding the Shi’ite mosque before entering inside and exploding his device, it said. The attack took place as worshipers knelt in Friday prayer.
The affiliate, known as IS in Khorasan Province, is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan.
Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said in a video statement that police will “track them down in the next couple of days”.
He said the security agencies have identified all three suspects involved in the attack and “closed in on them”.
اسلام آباد :5 مارچ 2022
وفاقی وزیر داخلہ شیخ رشید احمد کا ملکی و سیاسی صورتحال پر ویڈیو پیغام جاری@ImranKhanPTI @PakPMO
( ایڈمن پوسٹ) pic.twitter.com/miaqQlDMex— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) March 5, 2022
FIR REGISTERED
The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) lodged a first information report (FIR) of the blast, on the complaint of the incharge of the Khan Raziq police station. The complaint includes provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The station house officer (SHO) said he rushed to the mosque after hearing gunshots and the subsequent explosion. The attacker first opened indiscriminate firing after entering the premises and then blew himself up, he recalled.
The police said they would try to identify the bomber from two severed feet found at the scene.
“There are seven bodies beyond recognition including two amputated feet which we believe are of the bomber,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP. “We are trying to ascertain the identity of the bomber through DNA testing.”
Ijaz said officials were checking the biometric data of people who had recently crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, where IS have previously planned attacks.
The Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, who have been fighting IS, condemned the attack. IS has proven to be the Taliban’s greatest security threat since sweeping into power last August.
“We condemn the bombing of a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan. There is no justification for attacking civilians and worshipers,” Taliban Deputy Minister for Culture and Information Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted.
He refused to comment on the IS claim that the suicide bomber was Afghan.
VICTIMS BURIED
Late into Friday night and early Saturday, relatives of the victims buried their dead amid heavy security, with sniffer dogs deployed. Police carried out body searches of mourners who were then searched a second time by security provided by the local Shi’ite community.
Hundreds of mourners crying and beating their chests attended funeral prayers for 13 victims late Friday and for another 11 on Saturday at Peshawar’s Kahoti Gate. The coffins were covered with shrouds, some with Quranic sayings. They were lined up on the open ground, made visible by bare light bulbs.
“These were human beings and worshipers inside the mosque, and they were brutally killed at a time when they were busy praying to God,” Hayat Khan told The Associated Press late Friday night as he buried a relative.
One of the police officers who was shot outside Kucha Risaldar mosque died immediately and the second died later from his wounds, police officials said.
PROBE TEAMS ESTABLISHED
Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said in a statement that three investigation teams were established to study forensic evidence and closed-circuit TV footage to track down the attack’s organizers.
In CCTV footage seen by The Associated Press, the lone attacker concealed his bomb beneath a large black shawl. The footage showed the bomber moving quickly up a narrow street toward the mosque entrance. He fired at the police protecting the mosque before entering inside.
Within seconds, there is a powerful explosion and the camera lens is obscured with dust and debris. The crudely made device was packed with ball bearings, a deadly method of constructing a bomb to inflict maximum carnage because it sprays deadly projectiles over a large area. The ball bearings caused the high death toll, said KP police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari.
WORST ATTACK IN YEARS
Friday’s attack in Peshawar’s congested old city was the worst in years in Pakistan. In July 2018, a blast at an election rally killed 149 people — and was also claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group.
Pakistan has seen renewed militant attacks after several years of relative quiet that followed military operations against militant hideouts in the border regions with Afghanistan.
The attacks have mostly been carried out by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since last August when the Afghan Taliban swept into power and America ended its 20-year involvement in Afghanistan.
The TTP are not connected to the new Afghan rulers. However, they are hiding out in Afghanistan and despite Pakistan’s repeated request to hand them over, none have yet been found and expelled.
The Islamic State affiliate, often referred to as IS-K, is an enemy of the Afghan Taliban and has carried out successive operations against them since coming into power last year.
— With input from AP, AFP
