CNN
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A lethal blast in a mosque in Peshawar on Monday, the newest assault on town in northwest Pakistan, killed a minimum of 61 folks and left about 157 injured, in accordance with Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan.

Rescue operations are actually underway within the mosque, which is located inside a police compound and is generally attended by regulation enforcement officers.

In a press release to CNN, Khan, the Peshawar police chief, earlier mentioned the incident contained in the Police Strains Mosque was “in all probability a suicide assault,” echoing Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“The brutal killing of Muslims prostrating earlier than Allah is towards the teachings of the Quran,” Sharif mentioned in a press release, including that “focusing on the Home of Allah is proof that the attackers don’t have anything to do with Islam.”

“Terrorists need to create concern by focusing on those that carry out the obligation of defending Pakistan,” the prime minister continued.

“Those that battle towards Pakistan will probably be erased from the web page.”

A “complete technique” is within the works with the intention to restore regulation and order within the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place Peshawar is positioned, Sharif additionally mentioned.

Conflicting accounts have emerged about who’s behind the assault. A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, often called Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), Muhammad Khorasani, has denied any involvement within the assault.

“Relating to the Peshawar incident, we think about it essential to make clear that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with this incident. In response to our legal guidelines and common structure, any motion in mosques, madrasas, funerals grounds and different sacred locations is an offence,” Khorasani mentioned in a press release late Monday.

He didn’t touch upon earlier statements by TTP officers Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani, who had claimed the blast was “revenge” for the dying of TTP militant Khalid Khorasani final 12 months.

The TTP is a US-designated international terrorist group working in each Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan authorities say an investigation is underway, and haven’t confirmed both declare.

Prime Minister Sharif traveled to Peshawar following the lethal blast and visited Woman Studying Hospital to fulfill these injured, his workplace mentioned.

“Simply returned from Peshawar. The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. That is a minimum of an assault on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed by a deep sense of grief. I’ve little question terrorism is our foremost nationwide safety problem,” Sharif posted on Twitter.

“My message to the perpetrators of as we speak’s despicable incident is that you could’t underestimate the resolve of our folks,” he added.

Former chief Pakistani Imran Khan additionally condemned the blast, saying in a tweet that “it’s crucial we enhance our intelligence gathering & correctly equip our police forces to fight the rising risk of terrorism.”

Khan’s occasion Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf holds the provincial authorities of Khyber Pakhtunkwa.

Town of Peshawar – which is positioned on the fringe of Pakistan’s tribal districts that border Afghanistan – has incessantly been the positioning of assaults by the TTP and different militant teams.

The Islamic State (ISIS) mentioned they had been accountable for an attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar in March 2022. That blast killed a minimum of 61 folks and injured one other 196.

TTP’s central spokesman Muhammad Khurasani is but to touch upon Monday’s assault.