KP IG says Peshawar blast perpetrator was in police uniform

Peshawar (HRNW) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police Inspector General (IG) Moazam Jah Ansari has called out the protesting police officers as he brushed aside the conspiracy theories linked to the deadly Peshawar blast. He said that the militant who blew himself up inside the Peshawar mosque was in a police uniform.

During the presser in Peshawar on Thursday noon, the police chief turned emotional as he mentioned the sacrifices of the force he leads. He requested the police officers to not fall prey to the conspiracy theories related to the attack.

The clarification comes following an unprecedented protest by the police personnel in Peshawar on Wednesday where the demonstrators claimed the attack to be an ‘inside job’.

They chanted slogans indicating that they ‘knew’ who was behind the attack. The video spread like wildfire on social platforms.

Several speculations that the mosque was targeted by a drone which was witnessed by many police personnel also ran rife on social media.

Admitting there was a serious security lapse, IG said that they could not distinguish the terrorist as he wore the police uniform, riding a motorcycle and wearing a face mask.

He said that they have obtained the closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the attack too.

“We bound ball bearings used in a suicide jacket from underneath the rubble [of the mosque] yesterday,” he said as he shared the progress in investigation.

IG said that they have traced the suicide bomber through the CCTV footage.

The terrorist moved from Khyber Road to the Police Lines, parked his motorcycle.

Ansari said that the security at the mosque’s gate did not check the terrorist as he was clad in a police uniform.

“The 50-year-old mosque at the Peshawar Police Lines did not have pillars… so when the bomb exploded, the walls and roof caved in. My children (the people inside the mosque) were trapped under the rubble for hours,” he said.

“At 12:37pm, he (the attacker) entered the main gate on a motorcycle, came inside, talked to a constable and asked him about the mosque. This means that the attacker was not aware of the area, he was assigned a target and there is an entire network behind him … he was not a lone wolf,” IG said.

IG added that the police had found ball bearings from the blast site while confirming that the severed head found from the blast site was of the attacker.