Muslim countries and organizations strongly denounced the bomb attack on a mosque in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, killing and injuring scores of worshippers on Monday. The death toll in the suicide bombing rose to 83 while 57 others were injured, several of them critically, a hospital spokesperson said in Peshawar on Tuesday. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, the latest in a string of attacks targeting police. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday expressed the Kingdom's strong condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack in Pakistan. The ministry reiterated the Kingdom's firm position that rejects targeting places of worship and terrorizing and shedding the blood of innocent people. The General Secretariat of the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) strongly condemned the suicide bombing inside a mosque. OIC Secretary-Hissein Brahim Taha expressed his condemnation of this heinous act and offered his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and the government and people of Pakistan. Taha renewed the position of OIC against all forms and manifestations of terrorism, reassuring his organization's support for the government of Pakistan in tackling terrorism. In Makkah, the Muslim World League (MWL) has expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack that took place in a mosque in Peshawar. In a press release, MWL Secretary-General Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Isa stressed the organization's firm position that rejects targeting places of worship and terrorizing and shedding the blood of innocent people. The MWL offered condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf condemned the terrorist attack. He reiterated the GCC's firm stance toward terrorism in all its forms and motives, and expressed the Council's condemnation of this heinous crime that contradicts all human laws and values. In a press release issued in Cairo, Al-Azhar stressed its firm position that rejects targeting places of worship and terrorizing and shedding the blood of innocent people. Al-Azhar offered condolences to the families of the victims of the attack and the government and people of Pakistan. The Kuwaiti government expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of the suicide bombing in Pakistan. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the firm position of the State of Kuwait that rejects all kinds of terrorism, and confirmed its strong stance by the side of the government and people of Pakistan, extending its condolence and sympathy to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Pakistan. In a statement issued in Tripoli, the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident as a criminal act, confirming its absolute rejection of all kinds of violence, extremism and terrorism whatever their reasons and minifestations. In a statement, Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said her country denounces this terrorist heinous act, confirming its stance beside the government and people of Pakistan. — SG/SPA
