20 killed in Pakistan mosque attack

According to Pakistani media reports, Taliban terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in an email statement.

"Heavy firing was also reported, where residents said a thick cloud of smoke had engulfed the Hayatabad's phase V area. While residents said three explosions took place inside the Imamia Masjid Imambargah at the time of Friday prayers, police did not confirm the blast inside the Shia place of worship," Dawn.com reported.

A three-day mourning has been announced following the attack.

Security and rescue teams were dispatched to the spot immediately. The police and army personnel-led operation at the mosque has now ended.

Inspector General Police (IGP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nasir Durrani was quotedas saying by Geo news that the attackers entered the mosque by scaling a wall of an adjacent under-construction building.

IGP Durrani was quoted  as saying by the Pakistani news channel that the first suicide bomber carried out the attack in the gallery of the mosque while the body of the second suicide bomber was recovered from inside the mosque.

All hospitals in the area have been put on high alert.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has condemned the attack.

"Strongly condemn terror attack in Hayatabad Peshawar targeting mosque during Juma prayers. Tried to go to site but stopped due to ongoing op," he tweeted.

The attack comes after 33 people were killed and 55 others were injured in an explosion inside a Shia mosque in Pakistan's Sindh province last month.

The incidents are taking place even as as Pakistan is attempting to implement the National Action Plan to combat and root out terrorism from the South Asian country.

The initiative was started after the brutal Dec 16 attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School last year.