At least 25 people were killed and 30 wounded in a suicide bombing at a packed mosque in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, officials said.
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In a statement issued by the Department of State, the spokesperson said that the attack against civilians at a mosque during Friday prayers was an appalling reminder that terrorism threatens all countries in the region.
The death toll in the suicide attack at a mosque in Mohmand Agency has climbed to 28 as three more injured succumbed to their wounds.
Citing eyewitness accounts, it said the blast by the suicide bomber caused part of the mosque in Payee Khan to collapse and fall on several worshipers, killing them.
The incident took place on Friday afternoon as scores of people had gathered in a mosque for Friday prayers in a remote village in the Mohmand Agency, north of Peshawar.
Security forces has imposed curfew in Mohmand Agency’s Anbar area and launched a searching operation, Akbar said.
The extremist group is prominent for launching the attack that targeted elders from a government-sponsored anti-Taliban militia.
The report said that at least 16 others were also injured in this blast and a number of them are still in the critical condition.
“The cowardly attacks by terrorists can not shatter the government’s resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country”, he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the outlawed armed group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) routinely attacks soft targets such as courts, schools and mosques.
According to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 457 civilians and 182 security personnel were killed in Pakistan from January 1 to September 11, putting 2016 on course for fewer casualties than 2015.
Jamaat-ur-Ahrar also claimed the Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 72 people, many of them children.
Pakistan’s frontier regions, which are deeply conservative and hard to access due to rough terrain, have always been the sanctuary of fighters from al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups.
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Islamabad says its military operations have mostly succeeded in wiping out militant bases in tribal areas although sporadic attacks have continued.
