Carnage on holy day in Pakistan mosque
Bomber slipped past security and detonated device, killing at least 50 worshippers
CHARSADDA (PAKISTAN) – IT WAS supposed to be a day of joy and celebration as the faithful crowded into their local mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the holiest on the Islamic calendar.
Instead, it became a day of carnage.
'I lost my brothers,' said Mr Jehangir Khan, kneeling and holding his head in his hands.
He fought back tears as he recounted how he helped clear mutilated bodies of the dead from the Central Sherpao mosque in Charsadda in north-west Pakistan. The mosque was struck by a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the middle of around 1,000 worshippers yesterday.
At least 50 people were killed after the bomber detonated a device packed with ball bearings and nails in the crowded mosque at the residential compound of Mr Aftab Sherpao, an outspoken opponent of Islamic militancy. Mr Sherpao was Pakistan's interior minister until last month and also a close ally of President Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Sherpao was reported to have been unhurt in the attack, which raised the spectre of a bloody run-up to controversial national elections on Jan 8, with Mr Musharraf – a pivotal figure in the US-led 'war on terror' – battling to contain Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
'At least 50 people have been killed, and dozens were injured in the attack,' district police chief Feroz Shah was quoted as saying. 'I fear the death toll may rise further.'
At the time of the blast, so many people had gone to offer prayers that they could not fit inside the mosque, and crowded in rows on the terrace outside.
Provincial Health Minister Syed Kamal Shah said more than 100 people were injured.
Yesterday's powerful blast spattered the mosque with blood and pieces of flesh. Doors and windows were smashed by the impact. Blood-stained caps and waistcoats lay scattered everywhere on the ground.
Hours after the attack, ambulances were still going back and forth, ferrying away the wounded to hospitals in Charsadda and the nearby provincial capital Peshawar.
'We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,' said Mr Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast.
'It almost blew out our ear drums. Then, it was it was like a scene from doomsday.'
Mr Iqbal Hussain, a police officer in charge of security at the mosque, said all those who entered had been made to pass through a body scanner and were searched with metal and explosive detectors. 'We do not know how the bomber got in. Maybe he jumped over the boundary wall because it is quite low,' he said.
Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz maintained there was no security lapse.
'All possible care had been taken. There was no lapse as such…but such an incident can happen at such a gathering,' he told Aaj TV.
Condemning the attack, Mr Musharraf said: 'No Muslim could even think of committing such a heinous crime that takes the lives of a large number of innocent faithful.'
He vowed to keep up the fight against extremism, and ordered the country's security and intelligence agencies to 'track down the masterminds behind this abhorrent act'.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
