Pakistan says mosque bomber wore police uniform

Policemen along a street in Peshawar Thursday. Pic/AFP

The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in a police compound in the Pakistan city of Peshawar this week wore a police uniform and entered the high-security area on a motorbike, a provincial police chief said on Thursday.

The bomber behind Monday's attack had been identified as a member of a militant network, Moazzam Jah Ansari, police chief of Khyber Pashtunkhwa province, told reporters. "I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault," Ansari said.

Ansari said the CCTV footage showed the bomber, wearing a helmet and a mask, riding his motorbike through the main checkpoint of Police Lines. He parked his bike, asked directions to the mosque and walked there, Ansari added. "The police guards at the main entrance thought he was a member of the force; they didn't check him," Ansari said.

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Police Lines is a colonial-era, self-contained encampment in that houses middle and lower-ranking police personnel and their families in the provincial capital. Hundreds of police staged demonstrations across the province to protest the attack.

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