CRI听力:20 Killed in Pakistan Taliban Attack

Some 20 people were killed and over 40 others injured in a twin suicide attack at a mosque of Shia Muslims in Pakistan's northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar Friday afternoon.

Suicide bombers, wearing security forces uniforms, hit the mosque during Friday prayers.

An eyewitness said that at the time of the attack around 200 people were present in the mosque.

Officials say death toll may further rise as some of the injured were in critical condition.

Mushtaq Ghani is Information Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

"This sad incident happened during Friday prayers, three terrorists entered the mosque, two of them exploded themselves and third one got killed due to police fire. I just came from hospital, nineteen dead bodies were there."

The bomb disposal squad has diffused the unexploded hand grenades and the explosive jacket of the attacker who was shot dead by the guard.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistani Taliban says the attack is in revenge for the execution of one of their members by the government.

The group is also responsible for an attack on a school in Peshawar last year which left 150 people dead, mostly students.

Friday's violence was the second attack during the past two weeks. Earlier on Jan. 30, at least 62 people were killed and over 60 others injured when a suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque during a Friday prayer in the country's southern district of Shikarpur.