Deadly blast in Pakistan mosque leaves trails of tragic memories

The deadly bombing in a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar that killed 101 people and injured 157 others on Monday has added to tragic memories of a city with a long history of facing terrorism. The tragic terrorist act was the deadly incident after the 2014 army school attack in the city that claimed the lives of over 140 people, mostly schoolchildren. Most of the victims were police officers as the suspected suicide bomber blew himself up during midday prayer in the mosque inside the Police Headquarters in Peshawar. 'I have never seen such tragic moments in my service,' Bilal Faizi, spokesman for Rescue 1122, told Anadolu. Rescue 1122 teams reached the spot within a few minutes after the bombing to shift bodies and the injured to the hospital. 'Apparently, the reason behind massive casualties was the collapse of the mosque building due to the explosion that trapped many people under the rubble,' he said. According to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) officials, 49 injured are still under treatment and 107 have been discharged. 'We were praying when suddenly flames flared up and there was a loud explosion and then I don't know what happened as I fell unconscious,' Inamullah, a police constable under treatment in LRH, said. 'I cannot forget that terrible scene,' he told Anadolu, looking back at the tragedy. January 2023 turned out to be the deadliest month since July 2018 as 134 people were killed and 254 injured in 44 attacks across the country, according to the latest report released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think-tank. Security forces also killed 44 militants and 52 others were arrested across the country, according to the report. In 2018, at least 186 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the Mastung area of Balochistan during a political rally. - 2 FRIENDS WHO LIVED, AND DIED TOGETHER Abni Ameen and Iftikhar Ahmed from Charsadda, a district near Peshawar, were close friends who joined the police department in 2011 and 2015 respectively and lost their lives in the blast. 'Iftikhar was my cousin and he left two daughters aged three and one while Abni Ameen had a year old son,' Ahmed's cousin Jamil Dawood said. 'Both of them were very close friends since school times and Iftikhar joined the police because of his friend,' he added. Most of the people joining police lower ranks belong to middle or poor-class families in the country of 220 million people where, according to the UNDP 'Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022,' the intensity of deprivation, which is the average deprivation score among people living in multidimensional poverty, is 51.7%. 'Iftikhar hailed from a very poor family and I don't know how his family will survive now,' Dawood said.