Our Staff Reporter
Peshawar: A powerful IED blast killed seven seminary students and injured more than 110 on Tuesday morning at the Jamia Zuberia madressah in Peshawar’s Dir Colony.
Mohammad Asim, a spokesperson of Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hosoital confirmed seven deaths and said the deceased were students aged between 20 to 25.
“It was an IED blast which ripped off in the center of auditorium of Madrassah during a Quran class,” Indpector Genral of KPK police told a correspondent of Islamabad Telegraph over telephone.
Mohammad Ali Gandapur, another senior police official, confirmed the details. He said two teachers were among the wounded.
There had been intellegence reports about a new wave of terrorism possibly hitting main city of Pakistan including Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Islamabd.
Security has been beefed up following intellegence reports in all the cities mentioned above. Still, terrorists managed to carry out blasts first in Quetta on Sunday which killed three people and second Today in Peshawar.
A wave of fear has been felt among Peshawar city following the IED blast. Security forces have cordoned off the area where blast occourd. while search and combing operations have been ordered by the high ups in other parts of city.
Government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed provinces to beef up security following Peshawar’s blast.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack until filing of this report.
Emotional scenes have been witnessed at hospitals across Peshawar. Parents and relatives of students rushed to hospital where dead and injured were taken to. They were seen running between the mortuary and the surgical wards of Lady Reading Hospital with tears rolling down their cheeks.
The spokesperson of LRH said that seven dead bodies and 70 injured have been brought to the facility.
He stated that the injured were being provided with immediate medical attention and the hospital’s director was present at the emergency ward. He added that an emergency had also been declared at the medical facility.
According to reports, the injured have also been taken to Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Naseerullah Khan Babar Hospital. According to officials from the hospitals, 72 injured were taken to LRH, two each to KTH and HMC and 37 to Naseerullah Khan Babar Hospital.
Prime Minister Imran Khan “strongly condemned” the blast, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. He expressed sadness over the lives lost in the explosion and prayed for the quick recovery of the injured.
Today’s blast at seminary reminded the people about gurusome terrorist attack at Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014.
On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, comprising one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghan entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age making it the world’s fourth deadliest school massacre.