Over 50 killed as blast rocks mosque

More than 50 people were killed and around 120 others injured when a high-intensity bomb ripped through worshippers offering Friday prayers at a mosque in the Ghundai area of Khyber Agency’s Jamrud tehsil.
Officials and doctors said the condition of several of the injured people was critical, fearing the casualties could rise. An estimated 500 people were present in the mosque at the time of the attack. Blood was splattered across the mosque’s main hall and walls, while the doors and windows were destroyed and its ceiling fans mangled by the explosion. There is still confusion over whether the bombing was carried out through a planted device or a suicide bomber, with some saying a teenage suicide bomber had blew himself up amidst worshippers, while other reports said the explosives had been planted in the mosque beforehand. However, AFP reported that ball bearings used in the suicide vest were scattered across the mosque’s veranda. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet, however locals said they had been receiving threats from militants since long. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti was quick to condemn the blast, saying the inhumane and un-Islamic act would not fail the people’s fight against militancy.
Earlier, senior tribal official Khalid Mumtaz Kundi said the explosion was caused by a “suicide attack”. “The bomber was wearing about eight-10kgs of explosives and was on foot. He detonated in the main prayer hall,” he added. Witness Gul Jamal Afridi, 46, a local truck driver told AFP that he had been thrown to the ground in the intensity of the blast. “I saw smoke and fire. People were dying and crying for help, some were running in panic. I saw body parts and human flesh, it was horrible,” he said. Student Saqib Ullah, 24, said he had tried to help those lying near him after the bomb went off, but found most were already dead. “I saw my uncle lying in a pool of blood. I ran towards him and picked him up to carry on my back, but he had already died,” he said.
Iftikhar Khan, an official at the Hayat Abad Medical Complex in Peshawar told AFP that 40 injured people had been rushed there alone. Friday’s bomb was the deadliest since May 13 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a police training centre in a town about 30 kilometres north of Peshawar, killing 98 people.