IS claims deadly suicide bombing at Pak mosque

dpa Islamabad The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed resposibility for the suicide attack on a mosque in north-western Pakistan, in a statement lat...

dpa IslamabadThe Islamic State terrorist group has claimed resposibility for the suicide attack on a mosque in north-western Pakistan, in a statement late on Friday.The attack killed around 60 people and injured hundreds more in the deadliest attack in the country in years, police and rescuers said.“Dozens of Shiites were killed and wounded in a major suicide bombing that hit their temple in Pakistan,” Amaaq News Agency, mouthpiece of the group, said.It added that a fighter from the Islamic state had managed to storm the Shiite mosque in the city of Peshawar after shooting two members of the Pakistani police who were guarding the site, killing one and wounding the other.The agency quoting sources said the Islamic State suicide bomber, identified as Julaybib al-Kabli, detonated a highly explosive belt, killing at least 50 and wounding more than 200 others.Earlier, police and rescuers said a pair of suicide bombers had blown themselves up among worshippers at a mosque in north-western Pakistan during Friday prayers.The men fought their way into the mosque compound in the city of Peshawar by killing police guards before detonating their explosive vests in the packed main hall, police official Haroon Raheed said.“We have retrieved around 60 bodies and more than 200 injured people from the rubble,” said rescue service official Bilal Faizi.The death toll may rise further as around 50 of those injured are in critical condition, said Mohamed Asim, spokesman for the city’s biggest medical facility, the Lady Reading Hospital, which is treating most of the victims.Rescuers, police and volunteers have stopped searching for further victims, Faizi said.The mosque is located in a densely populated Shiite neighbourhood in the centre of city and most victims were Shiite Muslims, local resident Siraj Uddin said.An eyewitness who was inside the hall told Pakistan’s Dunya television channel that he had seen two young men running into the compound who started firing shots randomly before the explosion.“They shouted Allahu Akbar and a huge explosion occurred. There was smoke and screams all over. I then saw several bodies lying on top of each other and a river of blood flowing on the floor.” Pakistan Interior Ministry said it had heightened the level of security across the country by declaring a red alert.Violence has surged in the country since neighbouring Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last year.The Pakistani Taliban, a separate group from their Afghan counterparts, have stepped up their attacks against the country’s security forces and civilians since the fall of Kabul.Pakistani officials have said the group is operating from the border regions of Afghanistan, where they have been based since they were driven out from their hideouts in Pakistan in a series of military offensives.Around 80,000 Pakistanis have been killed in violence orchestrated by Islamist militant groups like al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State.