Pakistan: 55 reported dead in mosque suicide bomb attack
A suicide attacker detonated a bomb early today at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister as he received visitors on an Islamic holiday, killing a reported 55 people and wounding dozens more, authorities said.
Local police chief Feroz Shah said: “According to my reports so far, 55 are dead but we are checking this figure, and over 100 are wounded.”
The blast went off as worshippers held prayers for the Eid holy day at the mosque in Aftab Khan Sherpao’s residential compound in Sherpao, a village about 40kms northeast of the city of Peshawar, a witness said.
Mr Sherpao was safe, according to Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official in Islamabad.
Provincial police chief Sharif Virk said authorities were still trying to determine the casualty toll, adding that one of Mr Sherpao’s sons was injured.
Killings and other violence are common in Pakistani elections, and the blast today was the second suicide attack that apparently targeted Mr Sherpao in eight months.
Mr Shah said he was not sure who was behind the bombing, but believed it was related to the previous attack on Mr Sherpao.
“We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,” said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast.
“It almost blew out our ear drums. Then it was it was like a scene from Doomsday,” said Mr Ali, whose white cloak and trousers were torn and spattered with blood.
Mr Virk said the bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive.
Dozens of wounded were taken to the hospital in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
The hospital was chaotic as injured people arrived in pickup trucks, ambulance sirens wailed and wounded screamed for help.
Mr Sherpao was interior minister – Pakistan’s top civilian security official - in the administration recently dissolved ahead of January parliamentary elections.
He is head of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Sherpao, and is running as a candidate for parliament in general elections next month.
In April, Mr Sherpao was slightly wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a rally for his political party in the nearby town of Charsadda, killing at least 28 people.
