PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll in a suicide attack on a Pakistani mosque rose to 83 people Tuesday, a Pakistani hospital spokesman said.
More bodies were removed from the rubble of the mosque Monday night and early Tuesday morning, the spokesman, Mohammad Asim, said, and several of the seriously injured died in hospital.
“Most of them were police officers,” Asim said of the victims.
Bilal Faizi, director of the rescue office, said crews were still removing rubble from the mosque’s roof, which collapsed after the attack. It was believed that there were still more people trapped. The temple was inside a police complex in a high-security area of the city.
He added that the attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar also left more than 150 injured. It was not clear how the attacker was able to enter the complex located in a high-security area surrounded by other government buildings.
Mourners began burying the victims of the attack on Tuesday in various cemeteries in Peshawar and elsewhere.
Authorities have not determined who was behind the attack.
Shortly after Monday’s blast, Sarbakaf Mohmand, a Pakistani Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter.
But hours later, the group’s spokesman, also known as Terik-e-Taliban-Pakistan or TTP, Mohammad Khurasani, distanced the group from what happened, stating that they do not attack religious sites and that those who engage in such acts would be punished under the TTP rules. His statement did not mention the issue of why a TTP commander previously claimed responsibility for the attack.
The militant group is a separate but affiliated branch of the Afghan Taliban. The TTP has been waging an insurgency in Pakistan for 15 years. It seeks to establish a strict regime of Islamic law in the country, the release of its detained members and a reduction of the Pakistani military presence in the regions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that it occupies as its base.
“The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is nothing but an attack on Pakistan,” Prime Minister Shabaz Shariz tweeted, visiting the compound in Peshawar and pledging “firm action” against those responsible. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims, saying their pain “cannot be described in words.”
Pakistan, with a majority Sunni Muslims, has seen an increase in militant attacks since November, when the Pakistani Taliban ended their ceasefire with government forces.
