59 confirmed dead and 157 injured in Pakistan mosque bomb blast
A suicide bomber set off explosives in a mosque in northern Pakistan, killing at least 59 people and wounding 157 more on Monday 30 January.
The explosion occurred near Peshawar’s police headquarters, in the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, just a few miles from Afghanistan’s border.
According to reports, more than 150 people were praying at the time that the suicide bomber struck, causing the roof of the building to fall from the impact.
The Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least 33 officers from the police force were among those who were killed.
A report from Reuters say it isn’t clear how the bomber was able to slip into the walled compound, which houses the police headquarters in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and located in a high-security zone with other government buildings.
Pakistani Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif, who visited the scene in Peshawar on Monday, condemned the bombing and urged people to donate blood to help save the wounded.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also issued a statement condemning the “horrific attack.”
