NEW DELHI: A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque packed with worshippers during afternoon prayers on Monday in the high-security zone in Pakistan’s northwestern Peshawar city, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 157 others, mostly policemen, security and health officials said.

The blast occurred inside the mosque in the Police Lines area around 1.40 pm when worshippers, which included personnel of the police, army and bomb disposal squad – were offering the Zuhr (afternoon) prayers. The bomber who was present in the front row blew himself up, officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the bombing in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. A commander of the group issued the claim in a tweet.

The TTP is believed to have gained strength over the last couple of years, since the Afghan Taliban retook control of the neighboring country in August 2021. The TTP are a separate group to the Afghan Taliban, but they are close allies.

The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan for 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of members in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country's former tribal regions.

Pakistan's DAWN TV network quoted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as condemning the attack and lambasting the attackers as having "nothing to do with Islam."

"Terrorists want to create fear by targeting those who perform the duty of defending Pakistan," he said, alluding to the high number of security forces who use the mosque. "The entire nation is standing united against the menace of terrorism."