Pakistani officials revised the death toll to 84. Earlier it was estimated that more than 100 people had been killed in the blast. About 400 worshipers were inside a Peshawar mosque when a suicide bomber blew himself up. According to the latest estimates, 83 policemen were killed in the blast.
Pakistani police officers say they have been reduced to animals in their fight against a growing insurgency following the explosion at a mosque in Peshawar. A suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform stormed a heavily guarded compound in Peshawar on January 6 and blew himself up during evening prayers at a mosque. It is the deadliest attack in Pakistan in many years. Pakistani officials revised the death toll to 84. Earlier it was estimated that more than 100 people had been killed in the blast. About 400 worshipers were inside a Peshawar mosque when a suicide bomber blew himself up. According to the latest estimates, 83 policemen were killed in the blast.
The police admitted that the explosion that blew out the wall of the prayer hall, crushing the people inside the mosque, was a case of security failure. However, frontline officers in the fight against the insurgency feel abandoned. “We are in a state of shock, our colleagues die every two days, how long will we have to suffer,” a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. We are on the front lines of this war, we are protecting schools, offices and public places, but today we feel abandoned. The state tied our hands and they threw us in front of the animals, another official told AFP.
A few dozen police officers protested in Peshawar on Wednesday, frustrated by the grave risks they face. Inayat Ullah, a 42-year-old police officer, said it was incomprehensible to me. Another policeman who lost six friends in the blast said: “Every time we leave our house, we hug our loved ones and they hug us. We don’t know if we will come back alive or not.”