A suicide blast killed 44 worshippers and wounding more than 157 people, including police officers at a mosque inside Police Lines in Peshawar during Zuhr prayers.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Muhammad Asim Khan said: “We are receiving more dead bodies, so far we have received 44 dead bodies and more than 157 wounded.”
“I am here at the scene and rescue work is ongoing,” said Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Shafiullah Khan.
“More bodies are being taken out. Currently, our priority is to save people buried under the debris.”
Twenty-seven of the dead people were said to be policemen.
The mosque’s prayer leader was also among the killed persons.
While confirming the Peshawar mosque blast was a suicide hit, security officials said the bomber was standing in the first row while the Zuhr prayers were being offered.
He then exploded himself during the prayers.
The explosion was so huge that it completely levelled a section of the mosque and damaged other parts.
Journalists at the scene saw rescue workers carry two dead bodies away in an ambulance.
Part of the mosque roof and wall structure had collapsed, and bloodied survivors were limping away from the wreckage.
A blast was reported in a mosque in Peshawar’s Police Lines area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital. Several people were injured in the blast.
17 Martyred, 90 injured in #Peshawar suicide blast.#PeshawarBlast pic.twitter.com/X1VeD921G5— Walled city of Peshawar (@Oldpeshawar) January 30, 2023
“We have received dead bodies. It’s an emergency situation,” said Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, adding that at least 50 wounded had so far arrived at the facility.
Last March, an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a minority Shiite mosque in Peshawar killing 64 in Pakistan’s deadliest terror attack since 2018.
The blast was so powerful that its noise was heard miles away.
Sources said that after the explosion, the rescue officials and law personnel rushed to the venue.
The rescue officials are shifting the injured to the local hospital.
The security forces have surrounded the entire area after the explosion.
According to sources, the bomb went off inside the mosque at the time when the Zohr prayers were being offered there.
The explosion was so powerful that one part of the mosque was caved in.
The law personnel was trying to understand the nature of the blast.
Muhammad Azam Khan, the interim chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has ordered accelerated rescue efforts to save the lives of the injured.
He instructed the authorities to take immediate emergency action to transport the injured to the hospital.
Azam Khan also gave instructions to the medical authorities to guarantee that the injured received the finest care possible.
