Peshawar's Civil Secretariat evacuated over mosque threat alert
The Civil Secretariat in Peshawar was evacuated on Friday after a threat alert for its mosque, with all employees ordered to leave immediately.
PESHAWAR: The Civil Secretariat in Peshawar was evacuated on Friday and all employees were told to leave their offices immediately following a threat alert for the mosque inside the secretariat, Dawn reported, citing sources.
“We were told to leave immediately,” sources told Dawn.
A senior secretariat official said security had already been beefed up for almost three days, soon after the Kohat explosion, and confirmed that a threat alert had been issued for the mosque located inside the secretariat complex.
The alert follows the deadly two-pronged assault on September 18, when at least 23 people — including 15 police officials — were killed and more than 100 wounded after an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near a mosque in Kohat district’s old Police Lines. Terrorists then stormed the compound and attacked police facilities.
Most of the attackers were killed within the first two hours of that attack, though one managed to reach and hide inside a building. Police completed an overnight clearance operation the following day, killing a total of eight terrorists.
On Thursday, a Counter-Terrorism Department official was martyred and three others wounded during an intelligence-based operation against three suicide bombers in the Garhi Sherdad area of Warsak road on the outskirts of the provincial capital.
Sources
- Dawn: “Peshawar’s civil secretariat vacated over security concerns” — https://www.dawn.com/news/2032566
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