No fewer than 60 people, most of them police, have been confirmed dead following a blast at a mosque inside a highly sensitive Pakistan police headquarters on Monday, prompting the government to put the country on high alert.
In the provincial capital of Peshawar, which is adjacent to the former tribal regions near the Afghan border where militancy has been slowly expanding, the attack took place during afternoon worship.
The mosque, which had part of its roof and an entire wall destroyed by the potential suicide bombing, was the scene of a frenetic rescue operation that was taking place overnight.
‘Many policemen are buried under the rubble,’ said Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan, who estimated between 300 and 400 officers usually attended prayers.
‘Efforts are being made to get them out safely,’ he added.
Bloodied survivors emerged limping from the wreckage, while bodies were ferried away in ambulances.
‘It’s an emergency situation,’ Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for the main hospital in Peshawar, told newsmen.
The death toll continued to rise as more bodies were pulled from the debris, rising to 61 killed with more than 150 wounded.
As darkness fell, several men were still trapped in the wreckage, visible through cracks in the concrete.
‘We have given them oxygen so that they don’t have problems in breathing,’ said Bilal Ahmad Faizi, a spokesperson for the rescue organisation 1122.
At least 20 of the killed police officers were later buried after a prayer ceremony with coffins lined up in rows and draped in the Pakistani flag.
They were laid to rest with a guard of honour, a police official told reporters.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, amid a worsening security situation in the country.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the police headquarters in Peshawar is in one of the most tightly controlled areas of the city, housing intelligence, and counter-terrorism bureaus, and is next door to the regional secretariat.
Provinces around the country announced they were on high alert after the blast, with checkpoints ramped up and extra security forces deployed, while in the capital Islamabad snipers were deployed on buildings and at city entrance points.