Numerous dead in car bomb attack in Pakistan

Coordinated attack

Numerous dead in car bomb attack in Pakistan

A car bomb attack hits a police headquarters in northwest Pakistan. The blast also damaged a mosque. Several attackers are said to have been involved.

In a coordinated attack on a police headquarters in Pakistan there were numerous deaths. According to authorities, at least 16 people died in the attack in the town of Kohat in the northwest of the country. In addition, at least seven attackers are dead, according to police sources late in the evening (local time).

During Friday prayers, a vehicle loaded with explosives first rammed a gate and then exploded, police sources said. The armed attackers then stormed the area and one detonated an explosive belt. A mosque on the site was also damaged by the force of the blast.

Television footage from the Pakistani broadcaster Geo showed people fleeing the scene of the attack in panic. Lifeless bodies could be seen on the ground. More than 50 injured people were taken to a nearby hospital, a doctor told the German Press Agency.

Videos on social media, whose authenticity was verified by the German Press Agency, showed a badly damaged house front and several people removing rubble.

Initially, no one claimed responsibility for the attack in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Both a regional offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia and the Pakistani one Taliban (TTP) are active in the Afghan-Pakistani border area. The security situation there had continued to deteriorate in recent years.

Just at the beginning of August, 14 people were killed in a suicide attack in the Swat Valley in the same province. The attack at that time also took place in front of a police station. Hundreds of people demonstrated there against the increasing violence in the region. There were also attacks against police officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the previous months.

Pakistan accuses the Islamist Taliban government in its neighboring country Afghanistan proposes to provide shelter to terrorist groups in the border area. The leadership in Kabul rejects the allegations. In the spring of 2026, the conflict between neighboring countries escalated. Since then there has been regular exchanges of fire.