Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 18: At least 21 people, including 16 police officers, were killed and about 80 others injured as a vehicle bomb exploded during Friday prayers at a mosque near police offices in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-western Pakistan bordering Afghanistan as gunmen tried to storm the compound.
The attacker rammed the explosives-laden vehicle into the mosque when the people, most of them policemen, were attending Friday Namaz, the provincial police chief, Zulfiqar Hameed said. The attack left the outer wall of the police offices collapsed and the mosque badly damaged.
Several videos and photographs have gone viral on social media showing the intensity of the explosion that took place while Friday prayers were being held. The visuals and the images showed damaged walls and buildings, as people rushed to help the injured.
The coordinated assault was the latest in a surge of militant violence near the border with Afghanistan where Pakistani Taliban militants have increasingly targeted police and other security forces as the government intensifies operations against them.
At least seven armed gunmen had also attempted to enter the police compound and exchanged fire with officers. Six of the gunmen were killed, according to police, who said one suicide bomber attacked the nearby office of an intelligence agency. The police compound housed counter-terrorism police, who had carried out operations against militants across the province in recent years.
Most of the people who were wounded in the bombing were worshippers, a senior rescue official said. Some of them were in critical condition. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the casualties. The Pakistani President also conveyed his wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion.
The attack comes a day after a roadside bomb struck a security forces convoy in the north-western Hangu district and killed six soldiers. Government troops also conducted raids in various areas on Thursday and killed 10 extremists believed to be members of the Pakistani Taliban, the military and police said.
As of now, no group has claimed the responsibility, but some unconfirmed reports have claimed that it was a suicide bombing that was carried out by Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan (IMP), a militant group that was formed in April last year which opposes the Pakistan security forces and rivals the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
A study by Pakistan’s Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (ICSS) has said the IMP was responsible for multiple terror attacks, including suicide bombings, in the North Waziristan region since its emergence. The study also said loyalists of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), another group that rivals the TTP, could join the IMP.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains one of the most disturbed regions in Pakistan, where multiple terror groups, led by the TTP, have emerged, clashing with Pakistani forces, seeking independence from Islamabad’s rule. The Pakistani forces and the terror groups have conducted multiple back-and-forth attacks, leaving hundreds dead over the years.
Photos from the scene showed smoke rising over the site after the blast, which witnesses and residents said was heard far away, followed by gunfire. Inside the mosque, piles of bricks and concrete buried the floor, wires dangled from cracked walls and daylight poured through jagged holes in the roof, while a ceiling fan hung above the wreckage.
Residents said the exchange of fire continued hours after the coordinated attack.
Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on police and civilians in recent years. In 2023, a suicide bomber killed 101 people in an attack inside a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The group is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, which returned to power in 2021. Pakistan often accuses Kabul of sheltering the TTP and turning a blind eye to cross-border militant attacks. The government in Kabul has denied the allegations.
Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained high since Pakistan targeted alleged TTP hideouts in Afghanistan in 2025. The strikes triggered border clashes, prompting Qatar and Turkey to mediate a ceasefire. China later facilitated peace talks, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
Friday’s bombing came a day after Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met with Sharif, Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Asim Malik.
Kalin said Turkey would continue to make efforts to help resolve the tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan through dialogue, the news agency reported.
The Turkish intelligence chief also met with the government in Afghanistan. Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban, said on Thursday that top officials in Kabul held talks with Kalin and a senior Qatari security official. The talks addressed tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.