TTP denies responsibility for suicide blast in Peshawar mosque

Peshawar: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s official spokesman Mohammad Khorasani has dissociated the group from the suicide attack in Peshawar’s Police Lines mosque.

In a statement issued by the militant group, he said TTP’s Ministry of Defence guidelines that suicide attacks won’t be carried out in public places.

The statement came after the local media reported that a faction of the TTP claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that killed over 60 people.

 A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday.

The attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the “Red Zone” compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

“It was a suicide bombing,” Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. He said the mosque hall was packed with up to 400 worshippers at the time and many of the 170 wounded were in critical condition.