Death Toll From Mosque Blast In Pakistan Rises To 90 - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st January, 2023) The number of people killed in the terrorist attack on a mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has increased to 90, Pakistani media reported on Tuesday.

A suicide bomber set off an explosion in the mosque in Peshawar at about 13:40 (08:40 GMT) on Monday. Around 120 people were reportedly inside the mosque when the blast went off, most of them members of the police and the army. Media reported earlier that 72 people had been killed.

A total of over 200 injured were taken to the hospital, of whom about 100 are still receiving medical care and the rest have been discharged, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.

The search and rescue operations are still ongoing, the broadcaster added.

Media outlets reported that Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (affiliated with al-Qaeda, banned in Russia) had claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, Pakistani newspaper Dawn later reported that the radical Islamist organization had denied its involvement in the explosion, saying that its rules prohibited attacks on mosques and public places. At the same time, sources told the news outlet that some local units of the organization could be behind the attack.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is an Islamist alliance of several regional radical groups. It specifically opposes the governments of Pakistan and India, seeking to extend its influence to a number of regions of these states. At the same time, the Taliban movement in Afghanistan (under UN sanctions over terrorism) denies any connection with the eponymous alliance.