TTP claims responsibility for Peshawar mosque attack, toll rises to 32
The civil and military leadership held the banned TTP responsible for the carnage in Peshawar this week.
Pakistan has decided to seek the intervention of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada to control the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group, according to official sources.
During an Apex Committee meeting in Peshawar, the civil and military leadership held the banned TTP responsible for the carnage in the city this week, and decided to take up the matter with the interim Afghan government at the highest level, with a clear message that Pakistan would no longer tolerate cross-border terrorism, The Express Tribune reported.
Although the TTP has denied its involvement in Monday’s suicide blast at a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines, a briefing given to the Apex Committee suggested that the banned outfit was indeed the mastermind of the attack.
The meeting at the Governor House in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital was held in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack in the Police Lines in which more than 100 people, mostly policemen, were killed.
At Apex Committee meeting today, civil & military leadership expressed unflinching resolve to protect the people of Pakistan at any cost. Those who attacked innocent citizens will be brought to justice. We will not allow anti-terror gains to be reversed. 1/3
The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The participants of the meeting included Army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir, DG ISI Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum, Peshawar Corps Commander, DGMO and other military officials as well as senior cabinet members, chief ministers of the four provinces, Gilgilt-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was invited to the all-important meeting but it did not attend.
The marathon meeting discussed how the suicide bomber managed to enter the high security zone, who the perpetrator was and how the government would respond to the renewed threat posed by the TTP.
The meeting was informed that the TTP, indeed, carried out the attack but because of fear of backlash from the Afghan Taliban, it did not own it, publicly.
Taliban Supremo Haibatullah Akhundzada
Insiders told The Express Tribune that Pakistan would seek the intervention of Akhundzada to control the banned terror outfit.
The meeting noted that despite the resurgence of terrorism in the country, terrorists did not hold any specific area, therefore there was no need for a full-scale military operations.
Instead, according to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, the intelligence-based operations would continue.
Police targeted in Peshawar mosque attack; toll mounts to 47
The IGP also said that the assailant was not an individual, but rather had a whole network supporting him…reports Asian Lite News
Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Moazzam Jah Ansari on Thursday said that the terrorist responsible for the January 31 suicide bomb blast at the Peshawar mosque had been identified through CCTV footage, adding that he was wearing a police uniform.
Addressing a press conference, the IGP stated that the assailant was was riding a motorcycle with a helmet and mask on, The Express Tribune reported.
He added that the motorcycle’s number plate was fake.
Ansari detailed that the attacker pretended to take the vehicle to the side, reached the police lines and asked a constable where the mosque was.
The bomber was found in footage from Khyber Road, The Express Tribune reported citing the top police official as saying.
He stated that the head of the suicide bomber found at the scene was the same as the person identified on the CCTV footage.
The IGP also said that the assailant was not an individual, but rather had a whole network supporting him. He stated that the police were close to the terrorist network responsible for the bombing
According to Ansari, the terrorists disturbed the peace of the provincial capital and police personnel were now close to their network.
He added that “revenge would be taken for every single” of the 101 people that were killed.
IGP Ansari urged people not to spread rumours regarding the blast as they only exacerbated the pain of those deceased.
He clarified that speculations of a drone attack were false and that there was no “crater” at the scene of the blast, The Express Tribune reported.
He furthered that no identity card of the assailant was found at the sight and that according to the bomb disposal unit’s report, the blast was indeed a suicide bombing.
Ansari said that TNT explosives were used in the blast, while other explosive materials used to demolish buildings were also used.
TTP claims responsibility for Peshawar mosque attack, toll rises to 32
In January, two suicide bombings were recorded — one in Peshawar and the other one in the Khyber tribal district….reports Asian Lite News
Since July 2019, January 2023 has been the deadliest month in Pakistan as 134 people lost their lives, a 139 per cent spike, and 254 others wee injured in at least 44 terror attacks across the country, according to statistics.
The figures released by the Islamabad-based think-tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) revealed the pattern of terrorist attacks continued in the new year, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remaining one of the worst hit regions, reports Dawn news.
Although the number of terror incidents slightly declined in January, the fatalities increased by 139 per cent, mainly due to the January suicide blast at a mosque in Peshawar which resulted in the death of 101 people.
In January, two suicide bombings were recorded — one in Peshawar and the other one in the Khyber tribal district.
At the same time, the security forces foiled a number of attacks by arresting at least 52 suspected militants, mainly from Punjab, and killing 40 suspects, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Police targeted in Peshawar mosque attack; toll mounts to 47
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa not only the militant attacks increased from 17 to 27, but the resultant deaths also increased from 17 to 116 compared to December 2022, Dawn news quoted the think-tank as saying.
At least 232 people were also injured in the province, most of them police officials wounded in the Peshawar blast.
However, militant attacks declined in Balochistan during January, where only nine militant attacks were reported compared to 17 attacks in December 2022.
The resultant deaths also dropped from 14 to 7 and the number of wounded declined from 48 to 20. Bolan, Panjgur, Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, and Quetta were the affected districts during the month.
Meanwhile, in Punjab, four militant attacks were reported in which three security forces personnel were killed while two low-profile attacks were reported in Sindh in which one person died, Dawn news reported.
The most high-profile attack was carried out in Mianwali’s Makarwal police station by “around two dozen TTP militants” on January 31.
The attack was repulsed, but it showed the numerical strength and ability of banned outfits to mobilise armed militants across the KP and Punjab border.
One attack each was reported in Rawalpindi, DG Khan, and Khanewal, the report claimed.
Police targeted in Peshawar mosque attack; toll mounts to 47
The rescue operation to retrieve bodies from the debris of the mosque concluded on Tuesday…reports Asian Lite News
The death toll in the Peshawar’s Police Lines mosque blast has risen to 100 as the rescue operation to retrieve bodies from the debris of the mosque concluded on Tuesday, Geo News reported.
The toll of injured has reached at least 221. According to Mohammad Asim, the spokesperson for the primary medical facility, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, approximately 100 bodies have been taken into the facility and 53 patients are being treated, as per Geo News.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in the mosque – a heavily guarded police facility at about 1 pm on Monday during Zohr prayers, forcing the roof to collapse on those praying at the time.
The caretaker CM revealed that an inquiry committee had been constituted to identify those responsible for this act.
Geo News reported citing Rescue 1122’s spokesperson who stated that the rescue operation to retrieve bodies from the debris of the mosque has finally concluded.
Speaking during a press conference alongside KP CM Azam Khan, Inspector-General Moazzam Jah Ansari said that about 10-12 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. He said that there has been a security lapse and investigations are underway to ascertain the facts, Geo News reported.
“We are checking one-month’s CCTV footage and tracking the facilitators of the bomber,” he added.
According to security officials, the suicide attacker was present in the front row during the prayers when he blew himself up. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier today, India condoled the loss of lives in the deadly terror attack that shook Peshawar.
Taking to Twitter, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote, “India extends its deep condolences to the families of the victims of the terror attack in Peshawar yesterday. We strongly condemn this attack, which has taken the lives of so many people.”
Pak interior minister admits mistake
Days after Pakistan witnessed a deadly attack on its security forces inside a Peshawar mosque, the country’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah admitted inside the National Assembly that it was a collective mistake to prepare the mujahideen to go to war with a global force.
“We did not need to make Mujahideen. We created Mujahideen and then they became terrorists,” Sanaullah said while addressing the country’s upper house of Parliament on Tuesday. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also speaking in the National Assembly said that the country’s National Security Committee will decide on the operation against terrorists.
The Interior Minister also claimed that former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had released members of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban who were serving death sentences.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister admitted the belief that the TTP, formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border would lay down their arms and submit to the law was mistaken, as per Geo News.
Inside Pakistan’s National Assembly, there was a heated debate yesterday with members demanding major reforms to eradicate terror.
After the Peshawar mosque blast, a faction of the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack but hours later a TTP spokesperson tweeted distancing itself from the claim and said their policy does not include targeting mosques.
Since November last year terror attacks across Pakistan have been increasing after a peace deal between the TTP and the Pakistan government was called off by the proscribed group. The TTP was formed in the year 2007 by banding together of several armed groups who protested against Pakistan’s cooperation with the US in its war on terrorism. The TTP supported the Afghan Taliban’s fight against the US and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Yesterday, in the National Assembly Pakistan Interior Minister Sanaullah stressed that it was incorrect to think that the TTP was separate from the Afghan Taliban. He said that the prior policy to resettle the Taliban could not bear fruit and led to the current situation in Pakistan.
The Pakistan federal minister said that the incumbent government has changed its approach towards the Taliban. He condemned the terrorist attack in the mosque in Peshawar’s Police Lines and said that the suicide bomber aimed to target police personnel, Geo News reported.
Furthermore, Sanaullah said that outlawed TTP terrorists have found safe havens in a neighbouring country. He stressed that the development comes despite Afghan Taliban making an agreement with Pakistan and the international community that they would not permit their land to be used against any other nation, according to Geo News. He highlighted the need to hold talks with Afghanistan in order to stop terrorists from having safe shelters.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also speaking in the National Assembly blamed Afghan refugees for the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan.
He said that in the last 1.5 years around 4.5 lakh Afghans had entered Pakistan with valid documents but have not returned to Afghanistan. “Who is the terrorist among them, I cannot say anything about it,” he said.
“When we were having a shortage of dollars, a truckload of dollars was sent to Afghanistan. We use to buy coal from them, they took Pakistani Rupees and bought dollars from here only and dollars sky-rocketed in Pakistan,” he added. (ANI)
UNSC condemns IS suicide bombing in Peshawar Shia mosque
The UN Security Council has condemned a suicide bombing that killed 62 people inside a Shia mosque in Peshawar for which the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) terror group has claimed responsibility…reports Asian Lite News
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack that took place at the Koocha Risaldar Mosque in Peshawar,” Council President Lana Zaki Nusseibeh said in a press statement issued on Sunday on behalf of all the 15 members.
IS-K said that an Afghan suicide bomber carried out the attack which took place on Friday.
A Sunni group, IS-K and its parent organisation Islamic State, consider Shias enemies of the faith and target them frequently.
“The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,” Nusseibeh said.
She is the Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates, which holds the Council’s presidency this month.
The press statement expresses the unanimous sentiments of the members of the Council, which is sometimes arrived at through consultations without formal meetings and is less formal than a resolution.
On Friday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and tweeted that “houses of worship should be havens, not targets”.
Nusseibeh said that the Council members “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Pakistan and all other relevant authorities in this regard”.
In October the IS-K bombed the Bibi Fatima Mosque and the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing about 50 people in each of the attacks a week apart.
According to the US State Department’s International Report on Religious Freedom issued last year, other terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan staged attacks on Shia Muslims, including the predominantly Shia Hazara community in Pakistan.
Apart from 56 fatalities, as many as 194 others have recieved injuries after the alleged Afghan suicide bomber exploded himself during the Friday’s prayer at the mosque…reports Asian Lite News
The Islamic State (IS) of Khorasan has claimed the responsibility of the terror attack on a Shia mosque in Pakistan’s Peshawar during the Friday’s prayer, in which at least 56 people killed.
The IS of Khorasan, which is active in the region, has claimed that it was an Afghan suicide bomber who executed the terror attack. The IS has made the claim in a press note.
Apart from 56 fatalities, as many as 194 others have recieved injuries after the alleged Afghan suicide bomber exploded himself during the Friday’s prayer at the mosque.
The Shia mosque, where the explotion took place, reffered as Imam Bargah is located at Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar’s Kucha Risaldar area.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan’s Special Assistant Barrister Saif has confirmed that the explosion was a suicide attack.
“There were two offenders who entered the mosque and then engaged in an exchange of fire with the security forces, following which one attacker was killed by the police. An eyewitness identified a person dressed in black as the suicide bomber, saying he entered the mosque, shot and killed the security guard first and then fired five to six bullets at the police. Subsequently, he rushed towards the main hall and blew himself in front of the pulpit.”
Separately, a local person claimed that despite residents urging for tighter security due to a recent hand grenade attack in the area, this suicide bombing was “neither anticipated nor prevented”.
Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attack and ordered to provide immediate medical aid for the wounded.
Incidentally, the suicide attack took place a day after DG ISPR Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar denied the reports about former DG ISI Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (recently posted in Peshawar as Corps Commander) networking with opposition members to foil the proposed no-trust movement against the Prime Minister.
Marking the 7th anniversary of the tragic APS terror attack, Pakistan and the whole world remembers such brave youngsters, who united the whole country against the menace of terrorism….writes Hamza Ameer
It was December 16, 2014, which brought about a change to Pakistan in a way that it had never imagined.
On that fateful day, a ruthless terror attack targeting innocent school children of the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar killed at least 147 persons, including 132 school children, making the day Pakistan’s 9/11.
Seven years have passed since the tragic incident, but memories of the horrific day still haunts the families of those who were martyred that day.
Sher Shah Khattak, a young student of APS was among the many brave ones who embraced martyrdom during the attack. But he preferred to save precious lives of his colleagues.
“Sher Shah Khattak was a brilliant student. His younger brother Ahmed Shah was also studying in the same school,” said Tufail Khattak, father of the brave boy.
The family of Sher Shah still remains in a state of shock over the loss, as they have developed multiple health issues since the demise of Sher Shah.
But one thing that gave motivation and courage to the family to be proud of their son’s bravery is how Sher Shah preferred others to be treated first before him, when he was brought to the hospital with four bullet injuries.
Colonel Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, who was an ENT specialist at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar at the time, received a large number of injured children from APS on that day. Among those was Sher Shah.
“I am an ENT specialist, but I held an administrative position as well. If you remember that child (pointing towards Sher Shah’s picture), he received four bullets on his chest but when brought to us at CMH, he told us, ‘sir, please prefer the two other injured students next to me’,” Yousafzai said, narrating what he witnessed when he first saw Sher Shah at the hospital.
“I couldn’t see any tears in his eyes,” he added.
“And all the doctors on duty, all the specialists in CMH, were witness to the amount of exemplary bravery shown by this student (Sher Shah). I have handled casualties during the Kargil war and at the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, but never in my life I have seen the kind of bravery and courage that this boy had,” said Yousafzai.
Sher Shah had managed to leave the school’s auditorium and save his life when terrorists entered inside, but he was concerned about his younger brother Ahmed Shah.
And when he could not find his younger brother anywhere outside the auditorium, he went back inside, where terrorists were spraying bullets on innocent children. Shah got hit with four bullets on his chest in an effort to save his younger brother.
And even after being brought to the hospital, Shah asked the doctors to prefer treating two other students who were with him before him.
His father said, “Sher Shah Khattak is named after a lion, a king. And he lived like a king and died like a lion.”
Sher Shah was one of the many courageous children, who did what they could to save the lives of many others.
Marking the 7th anniversary of the tragic APS terror attack, Pakistan and the whole world remembers such brave youngsters, who not only united the whole country against the menace of terrorism, but also proved that courage and strength is far more strong than any cowardly attack.
“I feel proud that sacrifices of our dearest children had given a right direction to the nation and Pakistan launched a much-delayed military action against the terrorists. We can forget the loss of our children for the safety of our people and security of our country if we are assured that no other parent would pass through the same tragedy that we suffered,” said Tufail Khattak.
