Peshawar at the heart of a deadly Taliban resurgence

The bomber struck shortly before afternoon prayers, when the mosque in Pesha-war’s bustling Police Lines district would be at its busiest.

- Shah Meer Baloch WAZIRISTAN and Hannah Ellis-Petersen 

Hundreds of people, including many police officers, were inside as the device detonated, creating a blast so strong the roof and a wall collapsed and 100 people were killed.

The attack last Monday was among the worst in years to hit Peshawar, a city in north-west Pakistan that has been ravaged relentlessly by deadly terrorist violence over decades. Hours after the attack, responsibility was claimed by a low-level commander from one faction of the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as revenge for the death of a fighter in Afghanistan.

Later, an official spokesperson from the TTP distanced themselves from the incident, stating it was not their policy to target mosques. Yet it was just the latest escalation in an onslaught of violence claimed by TTP in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which in recent months has been in the grip of a deadly Taliban resurgence that the government and Pakistan’s military appear powerless to control.