A Pakistani police official said the suicide bomber who killed 101 people at the police complex mosque in Peshawar was wearing a police uniform.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Muazzam Jah Ansari said Thursday that the guards on duty “did not verify his identity as he was wearing a police uniform (…) It was a failure (in the area) of security.”
He confirmed that the police had a “very accurate idea” of his identity by comparing his head, found at the scene of the explosion, with images from security cameras.
Ansari added that “there is a whole network behind it,” explaining that Monday’s attack was not planned by one person.
Hundreds of policemen were praying Monday afternoon at a mosque on their property when an explosion caused the wall to collapse.
Authorities are investigating how the security breach occurred in the area, which is one of the most controlled in the city because it includes intelligence and counter-terrorism departments and is located next to the regional general secretariat.
The attack is the most brutal in Pakistan in several years and the most serious since the escalation of violence in the region after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Source: AFP.
