Attack claimed by faction of Pakistan Taliban (TTP) active in the region.
A suicide bomb attack at a mosque and subsequent gun battle in Pakistan’s restive northwest has killed at least 27 people, including six civilians and 15 police officers, with dozens of others injured.
An explosive-laden car was rammed into the entrance of a mosque located at a police headquarters in Kohat, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghan border, as people gathered for Friday prayers.
The Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Ittehadul Mujahideen, a faction the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistan Taliban, claimed responsibility, saying it was a suicide bombing.
Provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed confirmed that the bombing had been a suicide attack. After the explosion, gunmen attempted to enter the police compound and exchanged fire with officers.
At least 15 bodies and more than 50 injured were initially taken to hospital, said Dr Tahir Shah, according to the dpa news agency.
Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 75 people were injured.
Bilal Faizi, a senior rescue official, said most of those wounded were worshippers, the Associated Press reported.
The mosque was badly damaged and the police station’s outer wall collapsed. Residents said the blast had been heard some distance away.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said at least six of the attackers had been killed in the fighting, adding that Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of allowing the TTP and other groups that orchestrate attacks to operate from Afghan territory. Officials in Kabul deny the accusation.
The TTP is separate from, but allied with, the Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
“Kohat is close to the Afghan border, it is the main city en route to the restive North Waziristan region, it is also on the way to Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan – over the past few months we’ve seen deadly attacks on all these areas” Hyder said.
These armed groups are trying to “overthrow the Pakistan government”, said Michael Semple, a visiting professor at Queens University Belfast and a former EU representative in Afghanistan who negotiated with the Afghan Taliban.
Semple told Al Jazeera sophisticated attacks like the one in Kohat could not be attempted without planning, logistics and training.
“Essentially this seems to fit into the pattern of the Afghan Taliban providing sanctuary to both al-Qaeda and different factions of the TTP to do the kind of training for this kind of attack,” he added.
The tension has seen the two states launch cross-border attacks on an intermittent basis.
The attack in Kohat came a day after a roadside bomb struck a security forces convoy in the northwestern Hangu district and killed six soldiers.
Government troops conducted raids in various areas on Thursday and killed 10 fighters believed to be members of the TTP, the military and police said.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bomb attack and directed authorities to accelerate rescue operations.
The Ministry of Interior said the “cowardly actions” of the attackers could not weaken the “nation’s firm resolve”.
