At least 31 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a suicide bombing and militant assault on a police headquarters complex in Kohat, in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Saturday. The city is near the border with Afghanistan.
Militants stormed the district police headquarters on Friday. Police said an explosives-laden car caused a major blast near a mosque on the compound, severely damaging the building as officers, their relatives and other civilians were worshipping inside.
A police official told AFP that 16 of those killed were police personnel. Security forces later exchanged fire with other attackers after at least two militants attempted to enter the facility, according to a police statement.
Police said several militants remained inside the Special Branch section of the complex on Saturday, with fighting continuing from late the previous night. Their exact number was not known, the official said.
Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, described by DW as a local militant group linked to the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack. The supplied source did not provide details about the group’s claims beyond its reported responsibility.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and called for rescue operations to be accelerated. The Interior Ministry said the assault would not weaken the country’s resolve, while President Asif Ali Zardari said the elimination of militants, including those associated with the Pakistani Taliban, was necessary for national security.
The attack comes amid worsening tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. Islamabad accuses the Pakistani Taliban of using safe havens across the Afghan border to plan and train for attacks; Kabul has rejected such accusations and condemned Pakistani airstrikes that it says have caused civilian casualties.