UN chief condemns Shia mosque attack in Pakistan

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Friday condemned the terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, which killed at least 20 people and injured more than 50 others.

Ban said in a statement released through his spokesperson that he was deeply dismayed by the repeated targeting of innocent people on account of their religious beliefs and in their places of worship, according to a Xinhua report.

"There is no justification for such crimes," Ban said in the statement.

Friday's attack on the Shia mosque by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants was the second terrorist attack targeting Shia Muslims in Pakistan in the last two weeks.

On Jan 30, a suicide attack at a Shia mosque in Shikarpur in Sindh province killed at least 62 people and injured more than 60 others, and was the deadliest sectarian incident to hit the country in nearly two years.

The UN chief urged the Pakistani authorities to swiftly bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack and called on them to redouble their efforts to protect religious and ethnic minorities and combat terrorism in all its forms.