Misguided government efforts to rehabilitate militants have helped fuel recent terrorist activity
The bomber struck just before afternoon prayers, when the mosque in Peshawar’s bustling Police Lines district would be at its busiest. Hundreds of people, including many police officers, were inside as the device detonated, creating a blast so strong the roof and wall collapsed and 92 people were killed.
The attack on Monday was among the worst in years to hit Peshawar, a city in north-west Pakistan that has been ravaged relentlessly by deadly terrorist violence over decades. Hours after the attack, responsibility was claimed by a low-level commander from one faction of the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as revenge for the death of a fighter in Afghanistan.
Later, an official spokesperson from the TTP distanced themselves from the incident, stating that it was not their policy to target mosques. Yet it was just the latest escalation in an onslaught of violence claimed by TTP in the north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which in recent months has been in the grip of a deadly Taliban resurgence that the government and Pakistan’s powerful military appear powerless to control.
Just two weeks previously, a police station on the outskirts of Peshawar was targeted in a well-organised onslaught by well-equipped Taliban fighters. “The terrorists were armed with modern weapons and night vision glasses,” said Irshad Malik, an assistant sub-inspector who was in the police station during the attack. “They targeted officers with snipers and hurled hand grenades at the police station.” Three officers were killed.
Raza Khan, another police officer present, said security agencies were “under attack across the province”. “It is a scary situation,” he added. “The terrorists seem to be everywhere.”