The death toll from yesterday’s suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan continues to climb. This morning several reports confirm there are at least 100 dead with another 50 injured in the blast. Many of the dead were Pakistani policemen.

The death toll has risen to 100 people after a mosque suicide bombing which targeted policemen in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan.

The mosque is within a high-security zone and an investigation is under way into how the bomber got in…

On Tuesday, rescuers scrambled to retrieve worshippers buried in the rubble, pulling out nine people alive but recovering more of the dead. No-one remained trapped, local officials said.

“Terrorists want to create fear by targeting those who perform the duty of defending Pakistan,” said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He declared a national day of mourning.

You can see the extent of the damage in some videos from the site.

There are no words for this barbarity.

A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in Pakistan, murdering 59 people. pic.twitter.com/VbCMieKPdU

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) January 30, 2023

At least 84 killed in A powerful suicide blast inside a mosque in Peshawar’s Police Lines area #Pakistan .
pic.twitter.com/Nz1wLHe02V

— Abdulhaq Omeri (@AbdulhaqOmeri) January 31, 2023

Who is responsible for the attack? Initially, a group called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility but they later disavowed the attack:

The bombing was claimed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban militia, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which said the attack was carried out to avenge the death of its former leader. However, a TTP spokesman later denied the claim, saying that such an attack — on a place of worship packed with men at prayer — was un-Islamic. The contradiction suggested splits within the group since the death of its leader, Police Chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said.

The Taliban leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was killed in Afghanistan last August. Khorasani was leading peace negotiations with Pakistani authorities:

An aide to the Pakistani militia leader, known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, said in a tweet Monday morning that he died in a bomb blast in southeastern Afghanistan. “He is no more with us,” said the aide, Ehsanullah Ehsan. “May Allah … give him the highest place in Jannah,” or heaven.

The reported death of Khorasani followed months of talks that began shortly after Afghan Taliban forces took power in Kabul one year ago. Numerous delegations have met in Afghanistan since then to help end the years-long conflict between Pakistani forces and hard-line Pakistani militants…

Ehsan told The Washington Post that two other Pakistani Taliban leaders who were traveling with Khorasani, Mufti Hassan Swati and Hafiz Dawlat Khan, were killed in the same incident. In a brief online conversation via Telegram, he said all three were killed by an “IED blast,” referring to an improvised explosive device or roadside bomb, but he did not specify where it happened or who was responsible. He said Khorasani was “leading the committee for peace negotiations.”

So this wasn’t a drone attack by the US or some western power. This was an IED probably planted by some extremist who wasn’t happy about the peace talks. With Khorasani out of the way there’s now a split within TTP with some wanting more attacks on Pakistani police and others seeing a mosque as an illegitimate target.

One of the remaining questions in all of this is how the bomber got inside the mosque which was located inside a heavy security area where anyone entering should have had to pass several checkpoints. As the attackers probably hoped, the penetration of this secure area makes Pakistan look weak.

The shockingly successful attack on a government compound that should have been one of the more secure parts of Peshawar has raised serious questions about Pakistan’s ability to confront its long-standing militant threat as the Muslim-majority country of 220 million remains mired in an economic crisis and a political standoff.

“This needs to be thoroughly investigated as to how the bomber succeeded in reaching the target by crossing all the checkpoints,” said Syed Masood Shah, a senior police official and minister in the current caretaker government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “This is not possible without some ‘support.’ The bomber seems to be well aware of the area, and he might have visited the spot before he executed his plan.”…

A police officer, who gave his name only as Tajir, was guarding the Capital City Police Office compound where the blast took place. He said he was worried about how the bomber had entered the area, adding that it was “very difficult to search every person here as usually there is hustle and bustle on working days. Government officials and visitors are passing through this gate.”

This CTV News report has a few extra details on the attack.