In Photos: Death Toll in Peshawar Mosque Bombing Rises to 100

The attack happened during afternoon prayers on Monday, close to areas along the Afghan border.

A powerful bomb went off on Monday, 30 January, near a mosque and police offices in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing multiple people and wounding scores of worshippers, police and government officials said.

(Photo Courtesy: Muhammad Riaz)

The death toll rose to 100 on Tuesday, 1 February, in suicide bombing attack at a mosque in Pakistan's Peshawar as more bodies were recovered from under the debris. The attack on Monday along Peshawar's police lines injured more than 150.

Local police officials told media outlets that a large number of people had gathered for afternoon prayers at the mosque when the suicide bomber, who was standing in the front row detonated his vest at the mosque's inner courtyard. The detonation caused a powerful blast that led to the collapse of the mosque's roof.

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack and said in a statement that the people behind the incident "have nothing to do with Islam." He added, "The entire nation is standing united against the menace of terrorism..."

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has taken responsibility for the attack. According to a report in Dawn, the TTP later distanced itself from it but sources indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the banned group.

Earlier in December, TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud told CNN that the ceasefire between the Pak forces and the group had ended. Mehsud blamed the ceasefire’s breakdown on Pakistan, saying it “violated the ceasefire and martyred tens of our comrades and arrested tens of them.” Amid concerns that the group was using Afghanistan as its base of operation, he claimed that it was "fighting Pakistan’s war from within the territory of Pakistan; using Pakistani soil."

Peshawar: Locals at the site after a suicide blast ripped through a mosque during afternoon prayers in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday, 30 January. 

Peshawar: Police officers clear the way for ambulances leaving with wounded people from the bomb explosion site, at the main entry gate of police offices in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday, 30 January. 

Peshwar: A woman mourns next to the coffin of her family member who was killed in the suicide bombing inside a mosque, at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday, 30 January. 

Peshawar: Security officials and rescue workers at the site of the suicide bombing inside a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Tuesday, 31 January.