CNN
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Several suspects have been arrested in Monday’s blast at a mosque in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar that killed more than 100 people.
Peshawar Police Chief Muhammad Ajaz Khan said more arrests would be made following the intense police investigation into the attack that left 217 others injured.
Authorities are investigating how the attacker entered the mosque, Khan added. The families who live in the police compound where the mosque is located are being investigated by the police because it cannot be ruled out that the attacker may have been helped by an insider.
Peshawar Inspector General of Police Moazim Jah Ansari said the police suspect that a 12 kg (26.5 lb) explosive device was used by the detonator.
Footage showed the mosque’s crumbling walls, with glass windows and shutters blown out by the powerful blast.
Emergency workers searched the rubble for survivors after the blast, but officials said “mostly dead bodies are being found.”
The blast on Monday marked a worsening security situation in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, and frequent attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP).
There were conflicting claims as to who was responsible for the attack. Officials Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani initially said the blast was “revenge” for the killing of TTP militant Khalid Khurasani last year.
However, TPLF spokesperson Mohammad Khorasani later denied that the group was involved in the attack.
Pakistani officials have not confirmed either claim.
Rights groups have condemned the violence, which has come at a rocky time in Pakistan, which has been hit by high living costs and a shrinking economy, exacerbated by last year’s devastating floods.