8 Dead, 110 Hurt In Pak Madrassa Blast

Peshawar: An explosion at a mosque and madrassa (religious seminary) in Pakistan’s city of Peshawar on Tuesday left at least eight people dead and more than 110 injured, several of them children. The blast took place at 8.30 am (local time) at the Speen (white) Jamaat mosque, which also serves as a religious school named Jamia Zubairia Madrassa in the city’s Dir Colony. “Students, including many adults, were studying the Quran when the explosion occurred,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ali Khan told reporters at the scene.

- Omer Farooq Khan

Shafqat Malik, the chief of the bomb disposal unit of the provincial police, said, “The forensic evidence that we have collected shows that about 5 kg of explosives were detonated through a timed device. It seems to be a high-quality device that appears to use TNT... This attack was carried out after proper planning.” Peshawar, close to the Afghan border, has seen some of the worst incidents of violence during the Taliban insurgency in recent years. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.