31 confirmed dead after attack at police HQ in Pakistan

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Army personnel stand amid the rubble following an explosion inside the police headquarters at Kohat in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on September 18, 2026. An explosion at a historic police headquarters in northern Pakistan on September 18 killed at least eight people and wounded 35 more, officials said, with the country’s president swiftly blaming a militant group. (Photo by Basit SHAH / AFP)

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The death toll from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan rose to at least 31, including 16 police personnel, a senior police official told AFP on Saturday, with fighting ongoing.

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Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on Friday afternoon.

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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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear,” the official added.

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A statement from the Kohat district health officer late on Friday said that more than 100 people had been injured, the vast majority of them police personnel, and several were in a critical condition.

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Local militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — the Pakistani Taliban — has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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– Rubble, blown-out walls –

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AFP images showed military personnel standing by piles of bricks, rubble and blown-out walls following the attack, with soldiers carrying assault rifles guarding the complex.

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Several ambulances were seen lining a street near the police compound.

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Pakistan has blamed the increase in attacks in KP and the southern border province of Balochistan on militancy emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies Afghan involvement.

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The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has carried out deadly airstrikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.

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The Taliban government in Kabul and the United Nations said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.

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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack on Friday evening, expressing “deep sorrow and regret over the injury of several people as a result of the blast”.

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He directed the “best medical assistance be provided to the injured” and called for a report into the attack.

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President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “regret” over the casualties, sending his “best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured in the blast”.

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“The complete elimination of Fitna-al-Khawarij and terrorists operating with foreign backing is essential for national security,” he said, using another term for the TTP group.

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AFP

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