The death tally in a militant attack on a Shiite mosque in northwest Pakistan rose to 21 after an injured person died of his wounds, officials said yesterday.
Three heavily armed Taliban militants reportedly stormed the Imamia mosque with grenades, automatic rifles and explosive suicide vests in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan’s northwest, at about the time of the main prayers on Friday.
“The death toll has now risen to 21,” senior local police official Mian Saeed told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
Hayatabad Medical Complex official Tauheed Zulfiqar, confirmed the new tally, adding that the injured person — who was in the intensive care unit — had died of his wounds early yesterday.
“About 40 injured people are still under treatment in different hospitals,” Zulfiqar added.
The attack came two weeks after a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan killed 61 people.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in an e-mailed statement, saying that it was revenge after the death of a militant known as Doctor Usman, who was hanged in December last year.
CAMPAIGN
Since June last year, Pakistan’s army has been waging a major campaign against strongholds of the group and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, which lies close to Peshawar.
The military has heralded the success of the operation, which it says has killed more than 2,000 militants, though the precise number and identity of those killed cannot be verified independently.
The nation has stepped up its fight against militants since Taliban gunmen massacred more than 150 people, mostly children, at a Peshawar school in December last year.
DEATH PENALTY
Following the massacre, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty and Doctor Usman, also known as Aqil, was one of the first to go to the gallows.
He was convicted for an attack on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and was arrested after being injured.
Anti-Shiite attacks have been increasing in recent years in Karachi, Quetta, the northwestern area of Parachinar and the town of Gilgit in the far northeast.
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