Image: Bilawal Arbab/EPA, via Shutterstock
“This is an IED attack,” Waqar Azim, a senior police official told The Dawn in a video report made public on Instagram. He said, “In the morning the children gather at the Madrassa at 8 AM and study and discuss their lessons, this is their daily routine. Around 8 AM a person entered with a bag, he is not identified yet. He left the bag and the explosion occurred.”
The massive bomb explosion has killed at least seven, and injured over 70, mostly students, at the Madrassa, or seminary, in Dir Colony, in Peshawar city of Pakistan on Tuesday morning. According to early news reports by local media, and news agencies the massive blast took place during a Quran class. Someone took a bag inside,” said Waqar Azim, a senior police official.
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According to The Dawn, the total number of children injured or killed is yet to be confirmed. The number of casualties till now have been confirmed by Mohammad Asim, spokesperson of the local Lady Reading Hospital, where the injured were taken for emergency medical attention, said news reports.
Horrific attack in #Peshawar targeting children&worshipers. Parents do not raise their children with the thought of martyrdom in mind. The children of #Pakistan should not have to be strong.They deserve to be protected. The attack on the madrasah proves terrorism has no religion.
— Aseefa B Zardari (@AseefaBZ) October 27, 2020
#Blast on Ring Road #Peshawar in a madrassa. More than 20 children injured. pic.twitter.com/xw6aLn8ZVe
— !بول کے لب (@BolKeLub) October 27, 2020
The Al Arabiya reported that the explosion tore through the Madrassa in Peshawar, located about 170 kilometers west of Islamabad. Waqar Azim, the senior police official told the media that the person who had brought in the bag left the lecture hall before the explosion. Another senior police official, Mohammad Ali Gandapur, confirmed to the media that two teachers of the Madrassa were also among those wounded.
No group has so far claimed immediate responsibility for the attack.
At least seven killed & 70 injured, including several children in blast at a religious school in #Peshawar, Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/arK3KIFp8L
— Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) October 27, 2020
As reported by Al Arabiya, this explosion breaks the few months of “relative calm in Pakistan”. Peshawar was once the epicenter of militant violence in Pakistan, stated the news report with “extremists targeting security forces and public spaces in the city near the northwestern frontier with Afghanistan.” The report added that even though violence in the region “declined in recent years following a series of military operations along the border with Afghanistan,” militant groups are still able to carry out deadly attacks. It recalled that Pakistan’s army had “launched operations in mid-2014 to wipe out militant bases in the area and end the near decade-long insurgency that has cost thousands of lives.”
The last deadly attack that caused outrage and grief across the world was the December 2014 attack at a military-run school in Peshawar by the Pakistani Taliban killing over 150 people, mostly school children.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he is “Deeply saddened” by the “terrorist attack” and has assured his nation that “the terrorists responsible for this cowardly barbaric attack are brought to justice asap.”
Deeply saddened by terrorist attack on madrassah in Peshawar. My condolences go to the victims families & prayers for early recovery of the injured. I want to assure my nation we will ensure the terrorists responsible for this cowardly barbaric attack are brought to justice asap
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 27, 2020
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