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A6 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 5 March 2022
Suicide bombing kills 56 at Shiite mosque in Pakistan

Associated Press Outside the mosque, Shiites
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — pressed through the cor-
A suicide bomber struck in- doned-off streets. Kucha
side a Shiite Muslim mosque Risaldar Mosque is one of
in Pakistan's northwestern the oldest in the area, pre-
city of Peshawar during Fri- dating the creation of Paki-
day prayers, killing at least stan in 1947 as a separate
56 worshippers and wound- homeland for the Muslims
ing 194 people, hospital of- of the Indian subcontinent.
ficials said. The prayer leader, Allama
No militant group immedi- Irshad Hussein Khalil, a
ately claimed responsibility prominent up and coming
for the attack. Both the Is- young Shiite leader, was
lamic State group and the among the dead. Through-
Pakistani Taliban — a mili- out the city, ambulance si-
tant group separate from rens could be heard.
the Taliban in Afghanistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
— have carried out similar condemned the bomb-
attacks in the past in the ing. His national security
area, located near the bor- Rescue workers and volunteers gather at the site of bomb explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, adviser, Moeed Yusuf, said
der with Afghanistan. March 4, 2022. the bombing was a "hei-
According to the spokes- Associated Press nous terrorist attack" and
man at Peshawar's Lady promised that those behind
Reading Hospital, Asim plosive device to his body, camera lens was obscured tal, where doctors worked the carnage would "be
Khan, many of the wound- packed with 5 kilograms with dust and debris. Ansari feverishly. brought to justice.
ed were in critical condi- (12 pounds) of explosives, said the crudely made de- Shayan Haider, a wit- "We will not allow our gains
tion. Scores of victims were said Moazzam Jah Ansari, vice was packed with ball ness, had been prepar- against terrorism & our in-
peppered with shrapnel, the top police official for bearings, a deadly method ing to enter the mosque ternal security to be com-
several had limbs amputat- Khyber Pukhtunkhwa prov- of constructing a bomb to when a powerful explosion promised at any cost," Yu-
ed and others were injured ince where Peshawar is the inflict the most carnage threw him to the ground. "I suf tweeted.
by flying debris. capital. spraying a larger area with opened my eyes and there Retired army officer Sher Ali
Peshawar Police Chief Mu- The device was hidden be- deadly projectiles. The ball was dust and bodies every- who had been inside the
hammed Ejaz Khan said the neath a large black shawl bearings caused the high where," he said. mosque at the time of the
violence started when an that covered much of the death toll, Ansari said. At the Lady Reading Hos- explosion was injured by
armed attacker opened attacker's body, accord- Local police official Wa- pital Emergency depart- flying shrapnel. He made
fire on police outside the ing to CCTV footage seen heed Khan said the explo- ment, there was chaos as a impassioned plea to the
mosque in Peshawar's old by The Associated Press. sion occurred as worship- doctors struggled to move Pakistani government for
city. One policeman was The footage showed the pers had gathered in the the many wounded into better protection of the
killed in the gunfight, and bomber moving quickly up Kucha Risaldar Mosque for operating theaters. Hun- country's minority Shiites.
another police officer was a narrow street toward the Friday prayers. There are dreds of relatives gathered "What is our sin? What
wounded. The attacker mosque entrance. He fired fears the death toll could outside the emergency de- have we done? Aren't we
then ran inside the mosque at the police protecting still rise further, he added. partment, many of them citizens of this country?" he
and detonated his suicide the mosque before enter- Ambulances rushed wailing and beating their said from inside the emer-
vest. ing inside. through congested narrow chests, pleading for infor- gency department, his
The suicide bomber had Within seconds, a powerful streets carrying the wound- mation about their loved white clothes splattered
strapped a powerful ex- explosion occurred and the ed to Lady Reading Hospi- ones. with blood.q

In unofficial capacity, Pompeo urges U.S. to recognize Taiwan

mer U.S. Secretary of State relations with mainland independent nation," he
Mike Pompeo in a speech China's Communist govern- added.
Friday on a non-official visit ment in 1979. Pompeo also framed the
to Taiwan called for the U.S. "It's my view the U.S. gov- Russian war in Ukraine as a
to give diplomatic recogni- ernment should immedi- battle of democracies and
tion to the self-ruled island ately and take necessary autocracies, praising Tai-
China claims as its own ter- and long overdue steps to wan for being on the front
ritory. do the right and obvious lines of this fight between
During Pompeo's tenure in thing, that is to offer the "freedom and tyranny."
the Trump administration, Republic of China Taiwan Pompeo is speculated to
the U.S stepped up official America' diplomatic rec- be among several Repub-
exchanges with Taiwan in ognition as a free and sov- licans who may seek the
moves that were strongly ereign country," Pompeo party's presidential nomina-
opposed by China, but he said while speaking at the tion in 2024.
did not publicly advocate invitation of the Prospect Taiwan, formally known as
for formal diplomatic rec- Foundation in Taipei, a pri- the Republic of China (Tai-
In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, former
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, poses for a photo with ognition of Taiwan while in vate think tank based in wan), is where the former
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen during a meeting at the Presi- office. Taiwan. ruling government of main-
dential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, March 3, 2022. The U.S. is Taiwan's largest "It's the reality. It's the fact... land China, led by the Na-
Associated Press unofficial ally but ended there's no need for Taiwan tionalist Party, fled to after
formal recognition when to declare independence losing a civil war with the
By HUIZHONG WU TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — For- it established diplomatic because it's already an Communist Party in 1949.q