7 killed, 70 injured in Pakistan’s Peshawar madrasa blast

An explosion at a religious school (madrasa) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, Pakistan has killed at least seven people and wounded 70 others, police officials say. 

The blast occurred at the Speen Jamaat mosque, which also serves as a religious school or madrasa for local children, at 8:30 am local time (3:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

A police official, reluctant to disclose the name, told the media “It was not a suicide attack, there were explosives that had been kept in a bag there”. 

Television footage from the scene of the blast showed significant damage to the interior of the mosque’s main prayer hall, with pockmarks dotting the ceiling and debris strewn across the floor, reports Al Jazeera.

Tariq Burki, the director of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) nearby, told that more casualties are feared as some of the wounded children are in “critical condition”.

Provincial health minister Taimur Khan Jhagra said the wounded were being treated at the LRH hospital. “There have been 72 patients brought to the hospital and there have been seven unfortunate deaths,” he told reporters. 

“Our sole focus right now is for the injured patients to be given the best possible care and so that they have the best chance to recover,” he added.

Source: Al Jazeera, oneindia.