Pakistan Blast: Peshawar Mosque Bomber who Killed Over 100 Wore Police Uniform; Cops Admit Security Lapse

"I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault," Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province police chief said after suicide bomber killed more than 100 people at a mosque in Peshawar.

New Delhi: The suicide bomber, who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in Pakistan's Peshawar this week, was in a police uniform, police said on Thursday (February 2, 2023). The bomber behind Monday's attack had been identified as a member of a terrorist network and entered the high-security area on a motorbike, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari told reporters.

"I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault," Ansari said.

Ansari said the CCTV footage showed the bomber, wearing a helmet and a mask, riding his motorbike through the main checkpoint of Police Lines.

He then parked his bike, asked directions to the mosque and walked there, Ansari added.

"The police guards at the main entrance thought he was a member of the force; they didn't check him," Ansari said.

On Wednesday, the police chief said investigators were not ruling out that the attacker could have had "internal assistance".

Peshawar mosque blast is worst attack on Pakistani security forces in recent history

Authorities in Pakistan on Wednesday said the death toll from the suicide bombing at Peshawar mosque increased by one to 101. All but three of those killed were police officers, making it the worst attack on Pakistani security forces in recent history.

Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif on Tuesday had accused the Pakistani Taliban, or Tahreek-e Taliban-Pakistani (TTP), of carrying out the attack, saying they were operating from neighboring Afghan territory. 

He demanded that the Afghan Taliban take action against them. 

A TTP commander earlier claimed responsibility, but a spokesperson for the group had later distanced the TTP from the carnage, saying it was not its policy to attack mosques.