PAKISTAN: A severe blast inside a mosque shook Peshawar’s Police Lines area today, January 30, with officials saying that at least 28 people were killed and 150 were injured. Peshawar Commissioner has confirmed the casualties, adding that a rescue operation was underway inside the mosque.

“An emergency has been clamped up at hospitals across the Peshawar and injured persons are being given the best medical facilities,” Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Mehsood said.

The explosion took place at around 1:40 pm as Zuhr prayers were being offered. He said personnel of the police, army and bomb disposal squads were present inside the mosque. Visuals run on television channels showed people gathered around the collapsed wall of the mosque.

A portion of the building had collapsed and several people, especially those standing in the front row during the prayers, were believed to be under it.

Later that day, in a statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif fiercely denounced the explosion and claimed that the perpetrators "had nothing to do with Islam."

Targeting individuals who defend Pakistan is a tactic used by terrorists to instil fear, he claimed.

The prime minister honoured the martyrs and vowed that their suffering will not be in vain. "The entire country is unified in the fight against the terrorist threat." 

A comprehensive strategy would be implemented, according to PM Shehbaz, to address the deteriorating law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the federal government will support the provinces in building up their anti-terrorism capabilities.

While denouncing the attack, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated that "terrorist incidents before the local and general elections were meaningful."

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