Pakistan Mosque Bombing Death Toll Called ‘Security Lapse’ as Death Toll Reaches 100

The death toll in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque inside a police compound in Peshawar during afternoon prayers rose to at least 100 on Tuesday, a day after the late morning attack. As many as 225 are reported injured, with some still in serious condition. More than 300 worshippers, many of them police personnel, were praying at the mosque when the bomber, sitting in the front row with the worshippers, detonated his explosives-laden vest. The explosion blew off the roof of the mosque which then caved in and destroyed most of it. Bodies were recovered all night and into Tuesday morning. The attack, which took place inside a mosque in a walled compound, inside a high-security zone with other government buildings, was described as a “security lapse” caused by “negligence.” Authorities in Pakistan have not determined the group behind the bombing, though the Pakistani Taliban is suspected. The police compound area is marked as a red zone where security remains on high alert around the clock. Apart from the top officials of the provincial police, the compound also hosts the offices of the counterintelligence forces.