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Agence France-Presse

The death toll from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan rose to at least 31, including 16 police personnel, a senior police official said on Saturday, with fighting ongoing.
An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car ‌into the Old Police Lines complex while gunmen stormed the compound on Friday afternoon as officers and ⁠their families were praying in a mosque.
The police complex at Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch and several other police units.
“At least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, have been killed and more than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing,” the official said.
“Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex,” the police official said on condition of anonymity.
“An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear,” the official added.

A statement from the Kohat district health officer late on Friday said that more than 100 people had been injured, the vast majority of them police personnel, and several were in a critical condition.
Local militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – the Pakistani Taliban – has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Images showed military personnel standing by piles of bricks, rubble and blown-out walls following the attack, with soldiers carrying assault rifles guarding the complex. Several ambulances were seen lining a street near the police compound.
The attack comes a day after a roadside bomb struck a security forces convoy in the northwestern Hangu district and killed six soldiers. Government troops also conducted raids in various areas on Thursday and killed 10 militants believed to be members of the TTP, the military and police said.
Pakistan has blamed the increase in attacks in the province and the southern border province of Balochistan on militancy emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies Afghan involvement.
The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has carried out deadly airstrikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.

The Taliban government in Kabul and the United Nations said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack on Friday evening, expressing “deep sorrow and regret over the injury of several people as a result of the blast”.
He directed the “best medical assistance be provided to the injured” and called for a report into the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “regret” over the casualties, sending his “best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured in the blast”.
“The complete elimination of Fitna-al-Khawarij and terrorists operating with foreign backing is essential for national security,” he said, using another term for the TTP group.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Associated Press


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An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car ‌into the Old Police Lines complex as officers and ⁠their families were praying in a mosque


An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car ‌into the Old Police Lines complex as officers and ⁠their families were praying in a mosque.


31 dead in Pakistan after suicide bomber, gunmen attack police complex

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car ‌into the Old Police Lines complex as officers and ⁠their families were praying in a mosque

An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car ‌into the Old Police Lines complex as officers and ⁠their families were praying in a mosque