Around 60 people were killed and 194 wounded on Friday in a "suicide" bombing at a minority Shia mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
The blast took place in the congested Qissa Khawani bazaar as people were offering the weekly Friday prayers at an imambargah.
The death toll was expected to rise as many of the injured were in critical condition, police and hospital officials said. The authorities did not confirm who could be behind the attack and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. However, both the Daesh group and the Pakistani Taliban have carried out similar attacks against minority groups in the past.
“It was a suicide blast, which left 50 dead,” senior superintendent of police Haroon Rashid told Arab News.
Muhammad Asim, a spokesman at the Lady Readying Hospital (LRH), the largest medical facility in Peshawar, told Arab News the death toll from Friday's blast had surged to 57.
“[Bodies of] people from all age groups have been brought in,” he said. "Of the 194 wounded, at least 137 are still under treatment in the hospital while the rest have been discharged."
Most of the injured were critically wounded, Asim added.
Sher Gul Safi, an official at the Edhi rescue service, said he had counted 56 dead and over 100 wounded.
“We are now transporting the dead bodies to their homes,” he told Arab News. “We’re busy in rescue and relief operation, transporting the dead.”
An eyewitness Ali Asghar, who had minor injuries from the blast, told media: “We were preparing for prayers when all in a sudden a terrorist entered with a pistol and started firing at people, killing many one by one, which was followed by a huge blast. The explosion took place in the main hall of the mosque.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan offered his condolences to the families of the victims and directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to personally visit them and look after their needs.
"Have personally been monitoring operations & coordinating with CTD (Counter-Terrorism Department & Agencies in the wake of the cowardly terrorist attack on Peshawar Imambargah," he said on Twitter.
"We now have all info regarding origins of where the terrorists came from & are going after them with full force."
Interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said a report had been sought from the provincial inspector general of police and chief secretary.
Pakistan’s information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain tweeted that the Peshawar blast was a “link in a large conspiracy,” in a veiled reference to neighbors India and Afghanistan whom Pakistan often blames for supporting militants who carry out such attacks.
