Staff Report
PESHAWAR: Police in Pakistan have arrested 23 people in connection to a bomb blast at a mosque inside a police compound in Peshawar city that killed at least 101 people, a senior police official said Wednesday.
Authorities are also investigating the possibility that people inside the police compound helped to coordinate the suicide attack, the senior provincial police official told on condition of anonymity.
A suicide bomber blew himself up into a highly sensitive compound in northwest Peshawar city and detonated explosives among a row of worshippers inside the at the compound on Monday, causing a roof to collapse and crush officers.
Investigation into Peshawar blast
“We have detained suspected people from the police line to get to the bottom of how the explosives reached the compound and to probe if any police department employee was also involved in the blast,” the senior official said.
“The attacker and his facilitators might have had links outside Pakistan.”
He said some among the 23 arrested people were also from the city and nearby tribal districts which border Afghanistan.
