At least 31 died from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan, a senior police official told AFP on Saturday (September 19, 2026), with fighting ongoing.
The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and several other police units. “An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear,” the official added. Several ambulances were seen lining a street near the police compound.
Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 2,20,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on Friday (September 18, 2026) afternoon. A statement from the Kohat district health officer late on Friday (September 18, 2026) said that more than 100 people had been injured, the vast majority of them police personnel, and several were in a critical condition.
“At least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, have been killed and more than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing,” the official said. “Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex,” the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
