Terror in Mohmand: Bomber wreaks carnage at packed village mosque

Children and teenagers among 28 killed in suicide bombing

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber targeted a Friday congregation at a packed village mosque in Mohmand tribal region, killing 28 worshippers and wounding dozens more.

“The bombing took place in Payi Khan village located in Anbar tehsil of Mohmand Agency,” Assistant Political Agent Naveed Akbar, told The Express Tribune. “It was a suicide attack,” he said. “Witnesses and survivors say someone shouted Allah-o-Akbar and then a huge explosion went off.”

“The bomber stood in the last row of worshippers in the packed mosque,” an investigator told The Express Tribune. “Most of the casualties are youngsters who stood in the back rows,” he said on condition of anonymity. Akbar confirmed the victims were mostly teenagers and children.

Jamshed Mohmand, a resident of the village adjacent to Payi Khan, said he rushed to the mosque as soon as he heard the explosion. “The roof of the prayer hall and the veranda had collapsed. There were body parts strewn everywhere and many people were pinned beneath the rubble,” he said.

Locals provided most of the initial assistance to victims till security personnel arrived and cordoned off the area. “I brought my pick-up truck, loaded three wounded and drove them to the hospital in Khar, the headquarters of neighbouring Bajaur Agency” said Shireen Zada, a resident who had prayed at another mosque nearby.

Only one victim was shifted to Agency Headquarters Hospital in Ghallanai, he added. Seven injured were airlifted to Peshawar for treatment of their critical wounds, the agency surgeon at the hospital in Khar told The Express Tribune. Of the casualties his hospital received, eight were younger than 10 years old while 10 were in their teens.

According to locals, those who died in the blast included six members of a family.

Mohmand Agency Political Agent Mahmood Aslam Wazir, who visited the area, told the families of the victims that they would not be alone in this time of grief and handed over an immediate compensation of Rs25,000 to the aggrieved families.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the bombing, saying the government would remain steadfast in their fight against extremists. “The cowardly attacks by terrorists cannot shatter the government’s resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country,” read a statement from Sharif’s office.

Pakistan Army launched a massive operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, in North Waziristan to purge the region of homegrown terrorists and their foreign cohorts. The operation was expanded to Khyber Agency, while intelligence-based and combing operations were also mounted across the country against financers, abettors and sympathisers of terrorists.

As a result security in the country has since improved. Scattered attacks still take place, but they are fewer and of a lesser intensity than in previous years.

According to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 457 civilians and 182 members of the security forces were killed in Pakistan from January 1 to September 11, putting 2016 on course for fewer casualties than 2015. Last year, the country recorded its lowest number of killings since 2007, when the Pakistani Taliban was formed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.