“Whoever did it in the holy month of Ramadan cannot be a Muslim”: Suicide bombers attack on a Mosque in Khyber

KHYBER (PAKISTAN): During Friday prayers at a mosque close to the Afghan border A suicide bomber struck worshippers, left 48 people dead and 85 wounded. Official said they may have been aimed at anti-Taliban elders.

Pakistan has lost more than 35,000 people in militant violence since 2007, with mosques, markets and hotels all targeted. But the attack was especially shocking because it came not only on Islam’s holiest day of the week, but also its holiest month, when observant Muslims fast during the daytime and spend extra time in prayer and communal activities. All types of wars and fights are prohibited in this holy month of Ramadan.

“Whoever did it in the holy month of Ramadan cannot be a Muslim,” said Saleem Khan, who said that in the aftermath of the blast people ran over him to escape the scene. “It is the cruelest thing any Muslim would do,” he said from his hospital bed in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, where he was being treated for his injuries.

The mosque is in Ghundi, a village in the Khyber tribal region, a part of Pakistan’s tribal belt off limits to foreigners and considered too dangerous for non-local Pakistanis to visit. Much of the non-lethal supplies heading to U.S. forces in Afghanistan pass through it.

As it has in other areas of the border during the last three years, the Pakistani army has carried out several operations against militants in Khyber, but with limited success. It has funded and supported the creation of tribal militias in some areas, which have also struggled against the brutality of the Taliban.

More than 300 people were at the mosque, local administrator Iqbal Khan said.

“All the evidence we have gathered confirms that it is a suicide attack,” said Fazal Khan, another local official.

The blast killed 48 people, according to Khalid Mumtaz, a local government official. At least 85 were wounded, Khan said.

The attack was the deadliest since twin bombings in mid-June killed around 40 people in Peshawar. TV footage showed prayer caps, shoes and green prayer mats scattered across a blood-splattered floor, while ceiling fans were twisted and walls blackened.