'Police Failed To Check Attacker Because...': Top Cop On Pakistan Mosque Blast

Peshawar Mosque Blast: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief revealed that 10-12kg of TN was used in the attack. The severed head that the police found from the blast site was of the attacker, he said.

Plain-clothed policemen gather over the rubble of a damaged mosque following January's 30 suicide blast inside the police headquarters in Peshawar on February 1, 2023. ( Image Source :AFP )

New Delhi: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari on Thursday informed the bomber in the suicide attack on a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area “was clad in a police uniform”, as he said that that the police was “closing in” on the terror network behind the attack, Pakistan-based news platform Dawn reported.

A suicide bomber who was present in the front row during the Zuhr (afternoon) prayers in a high-security zone mosque in Peshawar blew himself up on January 30, causing the roof to collapse on the worshippers. The blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof while claiming 101 lives.

According to the Khyber police chief, personnel at the entrance of the Police Lines did not “check the attacker because they thought he was their own”.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, but later distanced itself from the incident, Dawn reported. 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said that the police had found ball bearings from the blast site. “We bound ball bearings used in a suicide jacket from underneath the rubble [of the mosque] yesterday,” he said, as per Dawn's report.

“This was a suicide bomber and we have traced him […] we have obtained the CCTV footage of his movement from Khyber Road to the Police Lines […] then how he parked his motorcycle on a side […] he was in a police uniform and was wearing a mask and a helmet,” the officer informed.

He further mentioned that the severed head that the police found from the blast site was of the attacker.

“At 12:37pm, he (the attacker) entered the main gate on a motorcycle, came inside, talked to a constable and asked him where the mosque was. This means that the attacker was not aware of the area […] he was given a target and there is an entire network behind him … he was not a lone wolf,” Ansari said, as quoted by the report.

The police have tracked the bomber’s motorcycle as well. Ansari also revealed that 10-12kg of TNT, a high explosive, was used in the attack.

The high death toll was caused by the explosive and the fact that it was an aging building that did not have pillars, causing the roof to collapse.

Speaking at a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad on Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed serious concerns over the resurgence of terrorist elements especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan.

He said that if immediate and effective steps were not taken, the despicable incidents might spread to other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the Dawn reported sources indicating that some local faction of the outlawed TTP could be behind the attack.