Iran Condemns Terrorist Attack on Pakistan Mosque

“It is high time that all regional countries summon their resolve to firmly fight the root causes and covert and overt origins of this ominous phenomenon through vigilance, cooperation and interaction and rid the world of this plight of the century,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Saturday.

He expressed sympathy with the Pakistani government and nation over the heartfelt incident and offered his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims.

On Friday, at least 25 people were killed and 30 more wounded in a bomb attack in a Pakistani mosque in the village of Payee Khan, in the troubled Mohmand region of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan.

A group of pro-Taliban militants, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA), claimed responsibility for the blast.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif denounced the blast and said the “attacks by terrorists cannot shatter the government’s resolve to eliminate terrorism from the country.”

Thousands of people have been killed over the past decade as a result of the surge in violence in Pakistan.

In the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan, pro-Taliban elements killed over 150 people, most of them children, in an armed assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014.