PESHAWAR: The suicide bomber who killed more than 80 police officers at a mosque inside a sensitive compound in Peshawar earlier this week entered wearing a uniform and helmet, the chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, Moazzam Jah Ansari, said Thursday.
On January 30, a suicide attacker detonated a bomb at the mosque, killing 101 people and injuring many others. The proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, but later distanced themselves from it.
The bomber struck as hundreds of worshippers gathered for noon prayers in a mosque that was purpose-built for the police and their families living in a highly fortified zone.
“Those on duty didn’t check him because he was in a police uniform… It was a security lapse,” Ansari told a news conference.
Authorities are investigating how a major breach could happen in one of the most sensitive areas in the city, which houses the intelligence and counter-terrorism bureaus.
Ansari revealed the police have made progress in their investigation, announcing the police have obtained CCTV footage of his movements and traced the motorcycle used in the attack.
In CCTV images, the suspect is shown arriving at the gates on a motorcycle before walking through a security checkpoint and asking officers where the mosque was located.
He also confirmed that the attacker’s head was recovered from the scene of the bombing.
Ansari said the attacker was not a lone wolf, but part of a larger network, and the police are closing in on the network behind the attack.
He also revealed that 10-12 kilogrammes of trinitrotoluene (TNT) was used in the blast and that the combination of the explosive and the aging building structure led to the high death toll.
He also said the total death toll is being reviewed by the police and will be announced after eliminating all duplicates. He expressed his condolences for the victims of the attack and referred to the police personnel as his “children.”
INTERNAL ASSISTANCE
The police are also investigating how a suicide bomber reached a mosque inside the highly fortified compound, and believe the attacker may have had “internal assistance”.
“We have found some excellent clues, and based on these clues we have made some major arrests,” Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. “We can’t rule out internal assistance but since the investigation is still in progress, I will not be able to share more details.”
The incident was the deadliest in a decade to hit Peshawar, a city prone to militant violence near the Afghan border.
It has rattled the force, prompting unprecedented protests by police personnel across the province.
“How long will this injustice against us last?” one of the protesters, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, told reporters. Another group of policemen in Peshawar chanted: “We want peace.”
“Our comrades were martyred in this uniform, but the bomber made it worthless for us,” Amanullah Khan, a police officer on duty at a checkpoint in Peshawar, wearing a bulletproof jacket and a helmet with a Kalashnikov in his hands, told AFP.
“Now I will doubt the uniformed officials as well as other people, which is very sad and which has created a distrust.”
‘NOT TRAINED TO FIGHT A WAR’
Bickering politicians who are months away from contesting a general election amid a severe economic crisis have traded blame for the deteriorating security situation.
“Multiple institutions with no policy have no ability to take a decision on launching a decisive offensive against the militant groups. We need empowered political leadership,” security analyst Saad Muhammad told AFP.
“Our current police force is not trained to fight a war,” he added.
Police said they have a “fair idea” about the bomber’s identity, after matching his head with security footage.
Authorities are also investigating the possibility that people inside the compound helped to coordinate the attack, a senior city police official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Wednesday.
He said at least 23 people had been detained for up to 48 hours, including some from inside the compound and from the nearby former tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
Peshawar sits on the edge of the Pashtun tribal lands, a region mired in violence for the past two decades. The most active militant group in the area, the TTP has recently increased attacks on the police as part of its campaign against the government in Islamabad.
— With Reuters and AFP
