Suicide Attack on Kohat Mosque Leaves Five Police Officers Among the Dead
A vehicle packed with explosives struck a mosque near police headquarters in the Kohat district, killing at least sixteen people and injuring many more as a gun battle continued.
At least 16 people, among them five police officers, have been killed after a vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a mosque in north-western Pakistan, according to a senior police official in Peshawar.
The attack took place at a mosque near police headquarters in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a gun battle between the assailants and security forces was still raging. One of the attackers has reportedly been killed, an officer said, and a rescue operation is under way.
Zulfikar Hameed, the inspector general of police for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, described the assault as a suicide attack in comments to Reuters. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
President Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement expressing his best wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion. Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the blast.
Militancy in Pakistan's border regions has risen sharply in recent months, with attacks increasingly targeting the military and the police. Islamabad maintains that militants use safe havens in Afghanistan to train and plan operations inside Pakistan. Afghanistan's Taliban government rejects the accusation, insisting that militancy is a domestic Pakistani problem.