Kohat mosque and police-compound attack kills at least 31 people

Attack during Friday prayers

At least 31 people were killed after a vehicle carrying explosives rammed a police compound in Kohat, in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while officers and other worshippers were attending Friday prayers at a mosque inside the facility. Gunmen then tried to enter the compound and exchanged fire with police. Sky News and Al Jazeera reported dozens of injuries, extensive damage to the mosque and a collapsed section of the compound’s perimeter wall.

The casualty figures developed during the day. A United Nations briefing initially cited at least 16 reported deaths and more than 50 injuries, while later media accounts put the death toll at 31. Sky News said police reported that all seven attackers were killed in the explosion and subsequent fighting. Rescue officials said worshippers made up most of the dead, with police personnel also among those killed.

Responsibility requires careful attribution

Al Jazeera reported that Ittehadul Mujahideen, a faction associated with commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, claimed responsibility. Sky News separately reported that the broader Pakistani Taliban issued a statement disowning the attack. Those accounts are not necessarily incompatible because Pakistan’s militant landscape contains overlapping factions and alliances, but they make it important not to attribute the operation simply to the entire Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan organisation without qualification.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and directed authorities to accelerate rescue work. The UN secretary-general also condemned the bombing, stressed that attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable, and called for those responsible to be held accountable. The UN statement provides direct institutional confirmation of the attack and the early casualty picture, while the later totals come from subsequent reporting and local officials.

A worsening security environment

Kohat lies close to routes leading toward North Waziristan, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, areas repeatedly affected by militant violence. The assault followed a roadside bombing in nearby Hangu district that killed six soldiers and security raids in which authorities said ten suspected fighters were killed. The sequence illustrates the pressure on police and military facilities across northwestern Pakistan rather than an isolated incident at a place of worship.

The investigation will need to establish the attackers’ identities, the chain of command and whether the operation was planned from inside Pakistan or across the Afghan border. Islamabad has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of allowing anti-Pakistan militants to operate from Afghan territory; Kabul denies that allegation. Because no state actor has been established and the attack does not constitute an India-Pakistan interstate strike, it is not marked as a map alert candidate.