Peshawar police on Saturday revised down the death toll of the January 30 mosque blast to 84 after taking out names that were repeated in the martyrs list. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department on Wednesday said the death toll in the attack increased to 101 after another injured person succumbed to his wounds. However, the Peshawar police Saturday said that the confirmed number of martyrs stood at 84. It said the reason for ambiguity in the initial data was the repetition of names or the names of initially unidentified martyrs still being present in the unidentified list even after being identified. The police also released a list of the martyrs and prayed for them and their families. “May the people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, and other institutions lead the way in fulfilling the duty of protecting our great religion of Islam and the nation,” the police said. On Monday, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar’s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people – mostly police officers – had gathered for prayers. The suicide blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof. The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had initially claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group.
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