Culture Dozens dead after mosque attack

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Dozens dead after mosque attack​

At least 59 people were killed in a suicide attack at a mosque in northwestern Pakistan. Around 150 worshippers were injured in the attack on Monday, a hospital spokesman said. Most of the victims were police officers, according to police reports. Many people were still believed to be under the rubble of the building. The explosion occurred during midday prayers in the major city of Peshawar in a high-security zone. The area is home to many police buildings, which also house offices of the intelligence and anti-terrorism task forces.

"I am on the spot here, and rescue work is continuing," said authority representative Shafiullah Khan of the regional administration. "More bodies are being brought out. Currently, our priority is to rescue people buried under rubble."
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Police: suicide vest exploded​

Authorities assume that the attack was a suicide bombing, but so far no one has claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke of "terrorism" and strongly condemned the alleged attack. In a statement, Sharif said that those behind the attack "have nothing to do with Islam. According to government and police sources, a suicide vest exploded in the second row as up to 350 worshippers were praying or on their way to prayers at the mosque. The roof and walls of the mosque had partially collapsed. Heavy machinery and firefighters were used to search for survivors in the rubble. Local media reported that police, army and bomb disposal squads were on the scene. In the capital, Islamabad, police issued the highest security alert and said security had been increased at all entrances and exits to the city, the BBC reported.
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UN Secretary-General: "Abhorrent".​

The United Nations has condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms." "It is particularly abhorrent that such an attack took place in a place of worship," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres let it be known. Freedom of religion, belief and the ability to worship in peace are a fundamental human right, he said.
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IS attack a year ago​

Late last year, the Pakistani Taliban - which operates independently of the Islamist Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan - called off a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad. Since then, they have claimed several attacks for themselves. In March last year, a suicide bomber from the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) carried out an attack on a Shiite minority mosque in Peshawar, killing 64 people. It was the most devastating attack in Pakistan since 2018. In Pakistan, the vast majority of the population of more than 230 million men and women are Muslim. Around two million people live in the major city of Peshawar.​
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A group's own kind is almost always the most hateful and violent towards that group. Women, blacks, Muslims, (historically) whites, etc.
 
I've been saying for decades that we need to just turn the Middle East into asphalt and use it as a parking lot. Problem solved.
 
Cyborg Braphog said:
... Is the mosque okay?
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unfortunately not :(
 
Wait, guys, read this:​

Suicide bomber kills 59 in Pakistan mosque used by police​

By Jibran Ahmad and Asif Shahzad
  • Summary
  • Up to 400 worshippers in prayer at time of blast
  • Among those killed were 27 police officials
  • Pakistani Taliban deny responsibility for attack
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 59 people, including 27 police officials, the latest in a string of attacks targeting police. The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the "Red Zone" compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. "It was a suicide bombing," Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. He said the mosque hall was packed with up to 400 worshippers at the time and many of the 170 wounded were in critical condition. The death toll rose to 59 after several people succumbed to their wounds, hospital official Mohammad Asim said in a statement. Police said 27 of the dead were police officials. Local Taliban known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of Sunni and sectarian militant groups, denied responsibility. The bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers, officials said. "We have found traces of explosives," Khan told reporters, adding that a security lapse had clearly occurred as the bomber had slipped through the most secure area of the compound. An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the worst in Peshawar since March 2022 when an Islamic State suicide bombing killed at least 58 people in a Shi'ite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers. Peshawar, which straddles the edge of Pakistan's tribal districts bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by Islamist militant groups including Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban. "Tehreek-e-Taliban has nothing to do with this attack," the TTP said in a statement. The bombing happened a day before an International Monetary Fund mission to Islamabad to initiate talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian country's economy, which is enduring a balance of payments crisis.

'ALLAH IS THE GREATEST'​

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Geo TV that the bomber was standing in the first row of worshippers. "As the prayer leader said 'Allah is the greatest', there was a big bang," Mushtaq Khan, a policeman with a head wound, told reporters from his hospital bed. "We couldn't figure out what happened as the bang was deafening. It threw me out of the veranda. The walls and roof fell on me." The explosion brought down the upper storey of the mosque, trapping dozens of worshippers in the rubble. TV footage showed rescuers cutting through the collapsed rooftop to make their way down and tend to victims caught in the wreckage. "We can't say how many are still under it," said provincial governor Haji Ghulam Ali. Witnesses described chaotic scenes as the police and the rescuers scrambled to rush the wounded to hospitals. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack. "The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable," Sharif said. "This is no less than an attack on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed by a deep sense of grief. I have no doubt terrorism is our foremost national security challenge." Sharif, who appealed to employees of his party to donate blood at the hospitals, said anyone targeting Muslims during prayer had nothing to do with Islam.​
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You know how the FBI almost always was "aware" of a mass shooter before they do their whole mass murder thing?

Pakistani security forces have a similar thing, except they're supposed to blow up Afghanis or Indians.
 
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