Mosque bombing in northwest Pakistan kills 2, wounds 70

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A strong bomb went off Monday close to a mosque and police places of work within the northwestern Pakistani metropolis of Peshawar, killing a minimum of two individuals and wounding some 70 worshippers, police and authorities officers mentioned.

Many of the victims had been law enforcement officials, the officers mentioned. Nobody instantly claimed accountability for the bombing in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

Zafar Khan, a neighborhood police officer, mentioned rescuers try to get the wounded to a close-by hospital. He mentioned it appeared to have been a suicide bombing, however an investigation will present extra particulars.

Khan mentioned a number of of the wounded had been listed in essential situation at a hospital and there have been fears the dying toll would rise.

Suspicion in such assaults falls most frequently on the Pakistani Taliban, who’ve prior to now claimed comparable bombings.

The Pakistani Taliban, are referred to as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and are separate group but additionally an in depth ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized energy in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops had been within the remaining phases of their pullout from the nation after 20 years of warfare.

The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the previous 15 years, combating for stricter enforcement of Islamic legal guidelines within the nation, the discharge of their members who’re in authorities custody and a discount of Pakistani navy presence within the nation’s former tribal areas.