A powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in the Khyber district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday afternoon, causing the single-storey structure to collapse.

At least one police officer has been martyred in the explosion, said a police official. The deceased police officer was identified as Jamrud’s Additional SHO Adnan Afridi.

The mosque that was damaged in the explosion is located near Oba Pull in the Ali Masjid area of Jamrud tehsil.

Ali Masjid is a small settlement around 15km from Jamrud city and 45km from Peshawar. It lies on the international trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan, connecting Peshawar with the border town of Landi Kotal and then to the Torkham Border Crossing.

Khyber’s district police chief Abbas Saleem Kulachi said that police officials were trying to arrest a suspect who ran into the mosque, which was empty at the time as worshippers had left after the Zuhr prayers.

When Additional SHO Adnan Afridi chased the suspect to the mosque he blew himself up, bringing down the concrete roof, said the police chief.

The mosque was recently constructed, according to Aaj News correspondent, and is known as Ahle-e-Hadith Masjid.

After the blast, the police arrested a suspect who is thought to be a facilitator of the bomber.

Video shows bombing

A video of the bombing has surfaced on social media. It shows the police officer carrying a gun and trying to peep into the mosque from the door of the prayer hall.

Suddenly, a powerful explosion rips through the small building, and the only minaret of the mosque collapses as the roof caves in.

The video was recorded by someone standing on the bridge at a safe distance from the mosque, where Adnan Afridi was inspecting the prayer halls risking his life.

Anger and grief

People expressed anger and grief on the bombing which is the latest among hundreds of attacks against the KP police.

Jamaat Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan questioned, “How long will the blood of our soldiers, our police officers continue to flow? How long will our children continue to cry? Who will answer this?”

In a tweet, he said the “tribal districts especially Khyber district are being pushed towards the worst unrest” and state agencies must answer for that.

ANP leader Iftikhar Hussain said that “ongoing terrorism in Pakhtunkhwa has taken the form of massacre.”

If police were not safe, then who else was? he asked.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed a surge in terror attacked targeting police. Data released this month said there were at least 665 terror attacks across the province during 12 month period from June 18, 2022 to June 18, 2023.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.