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A suicide vehicle bombing and gunfire at a Kohat police compound mosque in northwestern Pakistan killed 16 people and wounded 57.
At least 16 people were killed and 57 wounded Friday when a bomb struck a mosque inside a police compound in northwestern Pakistan. The attack occurred during Friday prayers as security tensions remain high near the Afghan border.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 16 people, including five police officers and 11 civilians, were killed Friday when an explosives-laden vehicle struck a mosque near police offices in Kohat, in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said. Fifty-seven people were reported wounded, with some in critical condition, as emergency crews transported victims to hospitals and security forces secured the area.
The explosion occurred during Friday prayers at a mosque located within the Police Lines compound, according to provincial police officials. The blast damaged the mosque and caused part of the compound’s outer wall to collapse. Police said several armed men subsequently attempted to enter the facility, leading to a gun battle in which six of the attackers were killed.
No group was immediately identified as responsible in the initial AP and Reuters reports. Later reporting by Al Jazeera and Pakistani media said the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Ittehadul Mujahideen, a faction associated with the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. The competing reports underscore that attribution was still developing as authorities continued investigating the attack.
Kohat is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that has experienced repeated militant attacks and is close to Pakistan’s mountainous border with Afghanistan. Pakistani authorities have frequently accused the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, of operating from bases or safe havens in Afghanistan, while Afghanistan’s Taliban government has rejected those accusations. The TTP is a separate organization from Afghanistan’s Taliban but is allied with it.
The bombing came one day after a roadside explosion in neighboring Hangu district killed six Pakistani soldiers, according to the Washington Post’s account of AP reporting. Pakistani security forces also reported killing 10 militants in raids in various locations on Thursday. The latest violence comes amid continuing security operations against militant groups and heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The attack also adds to a longer history of violence involving mosques and security installations in the region. In 2023, a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, the provincial capital, killed 101 people. Pakistan has since continued military and police operations against militant organizations, while cross-border tensions have complicated efforts to reduce attacks in the northwest.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing and directed authorities to speed up rescue operations, according to officials cited by AP. Investigators were continuing to examine the attack, while authorities worked to determine the full number of casualties and establish the identities and affiliations of those involved.
Sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera, BBC and The Washington Post.