Rescue operation completed, 57 victims of the blast under treatment in LRH, says spokesperson
JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
The death toll from the bloodiest sucide bombing, which ripped through a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines on Monday, rose to 100 on Tuesday, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) officials announced.
Mohammad Asim, a spokesperson for LRH said in a statement that so far 100 dead bodies have been received by the hospital, adding that currently 57 victims of the blast are under treatment at the hospital.
Mr Asim also said that the condition of the admitted victims was stable.
The hospital said four wounded victims of the attack were discharged on Tuesday and 57 more were still being treated.
As per details, issued by the LRH, the tally of the injured stood at 221, while seven of the patients have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Government officials feared that the death toll was expected to rise.
As the suicide bombing caused the roof of the mosque to collapse, and resuers had to remove mounds of debries to recover many of the bodies.
The mosque where the suicide attack took place on Monday was frequented by policemen and considered one of the most forfieted area in the provincial capital.
Owing to non-availability of open space, the operation took more than 24 hours from the rescuers to recover the bodies trapped under the rubble.
The terrorist attack on worshipers during the Zuhr prayers has sent a gloomy wave of fear through the people of the province and cast a shadow over the government efforts for maintaining law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The attack has broken a period of relative calm in the province, especially in Peshawar which has been the site of several deadliest attacks in the years.
The Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan, while talking to media persons, maintained that the province has been facing such incidents for the last many decades, adding that police fought terrorism with great courage and determination.
“Hopefully normalcy will be restored in the province very soon, “ he added and said that a process was underway to prepare martyre packages for the families of those who lost their lives in the incident.
It was also the deadliest attack in the country since December 16 2014, when nearly 150 people, including 132 children, lost their lives when terrorists stormed Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar.
A suicide blast in the Friday prayers in a Shia mosque in the provincial capital’s Kocha Risaldar was also a major attack on the worshipers which had claimed more than 56 people and wounded over 195.
But in term of impact, the suicide blast in the central mosque at the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines was unprecedented as it took place in the highly heavily guarded place.
