World in Photos: Pakistan terror attack kills more than 100 — at a mosque where police officers prayed

The death toll from the terror attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan rose to 101 Tuesday, as rescue and recovery crews said they had ended their search for bodies. At least 100 more people were injured in the blast, which authorities said was carried out by a suicide bomber who had clearly taken aim at police officers. The Peshawar police chief said his officers were known to frequent the mosque, and that more than 90 percent of the victims were policemen who had gathered for afternoon prayers.

The mosque is in a neighborhood known as Police Lines and is home to buildings that house security and counterterrorism offices. It wasn’t clear how the bomber had breached security to reach the area or the mosque itself.

What is abundantly clear — from local accounts and the photographs collected here — is the scale of the devastation.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), originally said it had carried out the attack, only to distance itself just hours later. Authorities said Tuesday that a local faction of the group may have been behind the blast. A peace deal between the TTP and the Pakistani government broke down last year.

Whoever was responsible, the bombing was the worst to hit Pakistan in years. Peshawar itself, a city along the border with Afghanistan that has long been the scene of violent attacks, had been relatively quiet lately.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — whose government is already struggling with a badly battered economy — declared a national day of mourning on Tuesday and took to Twitter to appeal for calm: “My message to all political forces is one of unity against anti-Pakistan elements. We can fight our political fights later.”