At least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, were killed after a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a police facility in northwest Pakistan on Friday while officers and their families were praying at a mosque inside the compound.
Images from the site show piles of rubble, blown-out walls, armed soldiers and ambulances lined up outside the damaged police complex. The Old Police Lines complex serves as a district-level police headquarters and houses key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and several other police units. Several militants remained holed up in the Special Branch section of the compound. “An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear,” the official added. Several ambulances were also seen lined up on a street near the police compound.
The attack took place on Friday afternoon at the Old Police Lines complex in Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. A senior police official told AFP on Saturday that more than 100 people had also been injured.
The attackers stormed the complex before the explosion and gunfight, according to the police official. “Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
