KP Police Zeroing Terrorists Network Behind Police Lines' Mosque Suicide Bombing

In a major development, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has claimed to zeroing in on a terrorists network behind the deadly suicide bombing in police lines' mosque that massacred 103 worshipers mostly policemen and injuring 220 others

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2023 ) :In a major development, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has claimed to zeroing in on a terrorists network behind the deadly suicide bombing in police lines' mosque that massacred 103 worshipers mostly policemen and injuring 220 others.

Following the APS massacre in 2014 in which over 150 students and teachers were martyred, the Peshawar police lines named after slain DIG Malik Saad, has been considered the worst terror attack carried by the suicide bomber who came to the mosque on motorcycle while wearing police uniform by deceiving the security staff deployed on the police lines' gates on the fateful day ie Monday last and detonated his explosive laden jacket, killing 103 worshipers mostly policemen serving in different departments and wings of KP police.

All the speculations and rumours about nature of the blast were refuted by IGP Khyber police, Moaazam Jah Ansari during a press briefing today and made it clear that the attack was carried out by the suicide bomber and was not made by drone strike or planted bomb.

Rejecting all the conspiracies, apprehensions and propaganda theories that emerged after the powerful bombing on armed police busy in Zhur worship, the IGP made it crystal clear that it was a suicide attack that was carried out by the bomber, who was dressed in police uniform and came on a bike wearing a helmet.

He refuted all propaganda theories that the blast was made through a planted bomb or drone strike. "If the blast was made through a planted bomb there would be huge ditch or a hole in the mosque's roof if caused by a drone strike as nothing such as evidences were found on the ground.

The closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage has been acquired by the investigators through which it was clearly seen that the suicide bomber was dressed in a police uniform, riding a motorcycle and wearing a face mask, he said, adding about 10 to 12 kilogram of trinitrotoluene (TNT) was used in the attack.

"I myself had seen the footage of the suicide bomber dressed in police uniform, wearing casual jacket, helmet and was arrived on motorbike." The IGP said the bomber entered the mosque at 12:37pm and asked one of the police constables about the mosque, adding the question indicated that the bomber was unaware of the place and was sent by someone to carry out the explosion with police was the target.

"There is a complete network behind the bomber and he is not a lone ranger." The IGP said investigators were burning the midnight oil in this case and every angle and possibility was being explored to bring this high-profile case to its logical end.

"The motorcycle used by the bomber has been traced and more details about tracing were being collected. The intelligence agencies were close to trace the network of terrorists and busting it." To a question about extra time taken in the investigation, IGP explained that it takes one person 24 hours to scan a day's footage and 100 people were required to look at all cameras.

The IGP disclosed that the network of terrorists behind the attack has been found and the culprits would be punished for their brutal and inhuman act.

The KP police chief said that the police force were zeroing in on terrorists' network behind the deadly suicide attack on the police lines' mosque and warned that provoking of police jawans would not be tolerated and strict action would be taken against propagandists.

"I along with police officers and jawans was in deep pain after the martyrdom of policemen and we will take revenge of every drop of blood of our martyrs and injured," IGP said.

He said that moral of police force was sky-high despite the horrific mosque bombing and was ready to give more sacrifices for the protection of their motherland against any threat.

Referring to recent protests of police jawans and families of martyred cops at Peshawar demanding independent investigation of the blast, IGP said that he was the commander of about 1,30,000 police jawans who were like his children and he knew about their sentiments and pains through which they are passing through.

He reiterated that the pain of police force should not be increased further by creating hurdles in the police work and that politics on dead bodies of their loved ones should be avoided strictly. The IGP said all details would be shared with media once the investigation was completed and by that time all kinds of speculations should be avoided.

He said that police officers and jawans was busy in funeral preparations of their martyrs while conspiracies theories were started to provoke our people to launch a protest that was highly deplorable.

He said misleading and provoking of police jawans would not be tolerated further and police protest would be strongly discouraged.

He pleaded again to people not to 'provoke and mislead his force's jawans' and their further misleading would not be tolerated any more.

The suicide blast was so powerful that the shockwaves did not find ways to escape, hence, forcing the mosque 's roof to collapse on worshipers due to the lack of pillars.

The rescue staff and police took three days to complete the rescue operation and retrieved bodies and injured from the collapsed structure.

"Our first target was to retrieve the survivors and extract injured from the msoque's debris." "Identification of the accurate cause of the explosion was a significant development that would help investigators to reach the mastermind and culprits behind the attack," said former IGP Syed Akhtar Ali Shah while talking to APP.

He said there was a need to enhance the capacity of counter terrorism department and investigation staff of KP police to effectively counter terrorism and bust terror networks.

2117