A self-murder blast inside a Shia synagogue shook Peshawar’s Kocha Risaldar area on Friday, with sanitarium officers saying at least 30 bodies were brought to the Lady Reading Hospital.
At least 50 people have been reported injured.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesperson Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif said at least 30 people had been killed in the explosion, which he said was a self-murder bombing. He added that two terrorists were involved in the attack.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Peshawar Ijaz Ahsan said one police functionary was martyred while Asim Khan, media director of Lady Reading, said 30 bodies had been brought to the sanitarium so far.
The CCPO said that according to original reports, two bushwhackers tried to enter a synagogue in the megacity’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar and fired at the bobbies standing guard. As a result, one bobby was martyred while the other was critically injured, the CCPO said. Following the attack, a blast took place in the synagogue.
Police sanctioned Waheed Khan told AP that the explosion passed as worshippers had collected in the Kocha Risaldar synagogue for Friday prayers.
No bone incontinently claimed responsibility for the blast.
قصہ خوانی بازار کے کوچہ رسالدار شیعہ جامع مسجد میں دو حملہ آور نے گھسنے کی کوشش کی
— Capital City Police Peshawar (@PeshawarCCPO) March 4, 2022
ڈیوٹی پر موجود پولیس اہلکاروں پر فائرنگ ہوئی ہے
فائرنگ سے ایک پولیس جوان شہید جبکہ دوسرا زخمی ہوا ہے جس کی حالت تشویشناک ہے
پولیس ٹیم پر حملہ کے بعد جامع مسجد میں دھماکہ ہوا ہے
1/2 pic.twitter.com/9gwfHSsPuG
A substantiation Shayan Haider had been preparing to enter the synagogue when an important explosion threw him to the road.
“I opened my eyes and there was dust and bodies everyplace,” he said.
Substantiation has been collected from the point, according to a tweet by the Peshawar CCPO account, adding it was too early to say anything about the nature of the blast.
At the Lady Reading Hospital Emergency department, there was chaos as croakers plodded to move the numerous wounded into operating theatres. The sanitarium has been put on red alert and further medical help has been called to LRH, the prophet added.
The area has a number of requests and is generally packed around the time of Friday prayers, said, locals.
Excoriations
Prime Minister Imran Khan explosively condemned the attack and directed the provision of immediate medical treatment to the injured, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid also condemned the attack, saying he’d directed the parochial chief clerk and inspector general of police to submit a report.
He expressed grief over the lives lost in the incident.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the Peshawar incident is a part of a” larger conspiracy”.”We’ve fought against similar conspiracies in the history. God willing the adversaries of Pakistan will continue to fail.”
PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif offered condolences to the families of those martyred in the attack.
Explosively condemning the incident in a statement, Shehbaz said those who attacked worshippers could be”neither Muslims nor humans”.
He also expressed concern over the” serious security conditions “in the country.
” Words can not adequately condemn the sheer brutality. Terrorism continues to remain our foremost public challenge, “he added in a tweet latterly.
PPP Speaker Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said terrorists had” carried out an attack on humanity “by targeting innocent worshippers.
He demanded that the government incontinently arrest terrorist rudiments and their facilitators.
The PPP speaker said he was burdened by the non-implementation of the National Action Plan.
PPP’s Senator Sherry Rehman echoed Bilawal’s sentiments, saying, “An attack on people soliciting is an attack on the heart of all morality!”.
She also criticized the government for its” incapability to deal with the peril of rising terrorism in the region”.
Provincial Minister Kamran Bangash also offered his condolences to the victims’ families, adding that he was on his way to the sanitarium.
“May Allah blesses the departed souls and entitlement sabr to their loved bones,” he twittered.
German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck said he was agonized by the” act of terrible terror against worshippers in Peshawar”.
“My associates at the delegacy and I stand in solidarity with the victims and their families in this delicate hour. Wishing quick recovery to the injured,” he said.
Source: Developing Stories from dawn
