Pakistan: Police officer killed in bomb blast in mosque

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An additional Station House Officer (SHO) was killed and several others injured after a bomb blast in an under-construction mosque in the Ali Masjid area of Khyber district, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Khyber is a district in the Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

As per the initial investigation, the incident seems to be a suicide bomb blast.

The deceased additional SHO was identified as Adnan Afridi, police said, adding wounded persons have been shifted to a local hospital for medical assistance.

It was learnt that the district Khyber Police has conducted an intelligence-based operation over the information of the presence of two terrorists in the under-construction mosque in Jamrud. One of the terrorists blew himself up when the police tried to arrest him while the other terrorist fled the bombing site.

However, the security forces successfully arrested him, according to ARY News.

The cases of a bomb blast in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are on the rise. The province is continuously facing terrorists attack.

In the past year, from June 18, 2022, to June 18, 2023, there were 665 terror attacks in the province, including 15 suicide bombings, The Dawn has reported.

In North Waziristan tribal district alone, 140 terror operations comprising eight suicide bombings, 37 IED and three hand grenade explosions, five rocket attacks, and 85 fire incidents were reported, according to the list of "Motive Wise Terrorism Incidents" published by the provincial police.

The list, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said 81 terror attacks took place in the Dera Ismail Khan district and that included 70 firing incidents, seven IED and two grenade explosions, and one suicide and rocket attack each, The Dawn reported.

The Dawn is a Pakistani Daily that provides information on Pakistan's social, economic, financial and security updates.

Earlier in March, at least nine security personnel were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide attack on them in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, police had said. The blast near the truck of Balochistan Constabulary personnel occurred on the Kambri bridge on the Quetta-Sibi highway, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Kachhi, Mehmood Notezai, said that the preliminary evidence suggests it was a suicide attack.

(ANI)