People stand amid the rubble, following a suicide blast in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan 1 February, 2023. Reuters
Peshawar: Major arrests have been made in connection with the Pakistan mosque bombing that killed over 100 people on Monday, Peshawar police chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters on Wednesday.
He said police are investigating how the suicide bomber entered the highly-secured police area, and could not rule out internal assistance to carry out the attack.
The blast occurred at a mosque inside a police headquarters around 1.40 pm on Monday when worshippers, which included personnel of the police, army and bomb disposal squad – were offering the Zuhr (afternoon) prayers. The bomber who was present in the front row blew himself up, officials had earlier said.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.
A brother of the slain commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Umar Khalid Khurasani claimed that the suicide blast was part of the revenge attack for his brother who was killed last August in Afghanistan.
The outlawed TTP, known as the Pakistani Taliban, has carried out a number of suicide attacks in the past, targeting security personnel.
The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several terror outfits in 2007, recently called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered attacks across the country.
With inputs from Reuters
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