Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said on Thursday that the police was \u201cclosing in\u201d on the terror network behind the suicide attack on a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area, revealing that the bomber \u201cwas clad in a police uniform\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Jan 30, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar\u2019s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people \u2014 mostly police officers \u2014 had gathered for prayers. The suicide blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof and claimed 101 lives.<\/p>\n
The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group.<\/p>\n
Talking about the status of the investigation in an impassioned presser today in which he referred to police personnel as his children, Ansari said that the police had found ball bearings from the blast site. \u201cWe bound ball bearings used in a suicide jacket from underneath the rubble [of the mosque] yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a suicide bomber and we have traced him [\u2026] we have obtained the CCTV footage of his movement from Khyber Road to the Police Lines [\u2026] then how he parked his motorcycle on a side [\u2026] he was in a police uniform and was wearing a mask and a helmet,\u201d the officer revealed.<\/p>\n
He also confirmed that the severed head that the police found from the blast site was of the attacker.<\/p>\n
Ansari said that policemen at the entrance of the Police Lines failed to \u201ccheck the attacker because they thought he was their own\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 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 [\u2026] he was given a target and there is an entire network behind him \u2026 he was not a lone wolf,\u201d Ansari said.<\/p>\n
He went on to say that the police have traced the attacker\u2019s motorcycle as well. \u201cInvestigation is a process that will require time, we are doing it diligently but it will require some patience.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point during the press conference, Ansari revealed that 10-12kg of TNT, a high explosive, was used in the blast. The combination of the explosive and the ageing building contributed to high death toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn trinitrotoluene blasts, the shockwaves have no space to go anywhere,\u201d he said, adding that this was the reason for the large number of casualties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 50-year-old mosque at the Peshawar Police Lines did not have pillars\u2026 so when the bomb exploded, the walls and roof caved in. My children (the people inside the mosque) were trapped under the rubble for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the police could have cleaned up the debris within two hours with heavy machinery but they didn\u2019t do so. \u201cThis is why there are people who are still breathing in the hospital today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IG also said that the total death toll of martyrs was being reviewed by the police because of \u201cduplicated\u201d lists. \u201cWe will give you the exact number of martyrs after eliminating all duplication and it will be done in a scientific way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said on Thursday that the police was \u201cclosing in\u201d on the terror network behind the suicide attack on a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area, revealing that the bomber \u201cwas clad in a police uniform\u201d. On Jan 30, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-311271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n