The United Nations Security Council has urged all the member states to cooperate with Pakistan’s government and relevant authorities in arresting the perpetrators of the Peshawar mosque attack, which claimed 62 lives and left several injured during Friday prayers.
On Friday, 57 people, including a policeman, were killed and 194 others were injured when a suicide attacker detonated himself while prayers were under way at an imambargah plus mosque located in the historic Qissa Khawani bazaar of Peshawar. Late on Friday night, AFP reported that the militant Islamic State group had claimed the suicide bombing in Peshawar.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorists attack that took place at the Koocha Risaldar Mosque in Peshawar on Friday,” read a statement issued by UNSC President Lana Zaki Nusseibeh on Sunday.
The Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN had shared the statement on Twitter.
The members expressed their sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and the government. They also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured people.
It read: “The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.”
The statement underscored the need for “bringing perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice”.
After the statement was released, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram thanked UN chief Antonio Guterres, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations. The envoy especially thanked China for proposing the press statement and UAE for securing consensus on it and issuing the statement to condemn the terrorist attack in Peshawar.
They further reaffirmed the need for all the states to combat by “all means,” in accordance with the Charter of the UN and other obligations under international laws, threats to international peace caused by terrorists’ acts.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was also among several people condemning the Peshawar blast. In a tweet on Friday, he offered condolences to those who have lost loved ones and expressed his solidarity with the people of Pakistan.
Foreign envoys and the State Department had also condemned the attack.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has already sought a report from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and police "We now have all info regarding origins of where the terrorists came from & are going after them with full force," he said in a tweet on March 4.
According to Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid March 4 video statement, the KP police and investigation bodies have identified three suspects of the Peshawar blast and have “closed in on them.”
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Saturday said it would disclose the perpetrators of the Peshawar blast and their network within the next 48 hours, as per the findings of the investigative institutions.
“We have identified the suicide bomber. Such kinds of information are sensitive and we will not divulge it and advise people to avoid making any comments,” Special Assistant to the KP CM Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif had said while addressing a press conference in Peshawar.
“There was not a pinpoint on intelligence but there was a general intelligence, there was a danger, there was an alert and because of this alert our police officers were on duty there [mosque],” Saif had said. “I want to tell this because there was no negligence from the police side.”
