CNN
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The Pakistani Taliban has claimed duty for a lethal blast in a mosque in Peshawar on Monday, the newest assault on the town in northwest Pakistan.
A robust explosion killed no less than 48 folks and left about 157 injured, in keeping with Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan.
Rescue operations at the moment are 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, often known as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) – put out statements saying the blast was “revenge” for the loss of life 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 a press release 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 in opposition to the teachings of the Quran,” Sharif stated in a press release, 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 struggle in opposition to Pakistan can be erased from the web page.”
Sharif added that “all the nation and establishments are united to finish terrorism” and that there’s a “complete technique” within the works with the intention 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 fulfill 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 question terrorism is our foremost nationwide safety problem,” Sharif posted on Twitter.
“My message to the perpetrators of as we speak’s despicable incident is which you could’t underestimate the resolve of our folks,” he added.
Pakistan’s former chief Imran Khan, whose get together 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 menace of terrorism.”
Town of Peshawar – which is positioned on the fringe of Pakistan’s tribal districts that border Afghanistan – has steadily been the location 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 no less than 61 folks and injured one other 196.
TTP’s central spokesman Muhammad Khurasani is but to touch upon Monday’s assault.