Car bomb detonates: Deaths and injuries after attack in Pakistan

Car Bomb at Police Station: Fatalities in Attack in Pakistan

Northwest Pakistan is considered a troubled region. Now, once again, a devastating attack with many dead and injured has occurred there – in the border area with Afghanistan. It remains unclear who is behind it.

At least 16 people have been killed in a suicide attack on a police facility in northwest Pakistan – among them five police officers. More than 50 people were injured. An attacker drove a car loaded with explosives into the compound in the city of Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed.

Attack During Friday Prayers

The attack occurred near a mosque on the premises where police officers, their family members and other civilians had gathered for Friday prayers. After the vehicle crashed into an outer wall, armed accomplices of the attacker opened fire. An attacker wearing an explosive vest was killed by security forces.

Television footage from Pakistani broadcaster Geo showed people fleeing the scene in panic. Lifeless bodies were visible on the ground. Ambulances transported victims to nearby hospitals.

IS and Taliban Active in the Region

Initially, no one claimed responsibility for the attack. Both a regional branch of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) are active in the Afghan-Pakistani border area.

The security situation there had been deteriorating increasingly in recent years. Just at the beginning of August, 14 people were killed in a suicide attack in the Swat Valley in the same province. That attack also took place in front of a police station, where hundreds of people had been demonstrating against the increasing violence in the region.

In the months before that, there were also attacks against police officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan accuses the Islamist Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan of providing shelter to terrorist groups in the border area. The leadership in Kabul rejects the accusations. In spring 2026, the conflict between the neighboring countries escalated. Since then, mutual cross-border fire has occurred regularly.