A vehicle bomb exploded on Friday at a mosque inside or adjacent to a police compound in Kohat, a district in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, as gunmen tried to storm the site, according to police and rescue officials cited by CBC News, The Jerusalem Post (citing Reuters) and Al Jazeera English. Casualty figures differ: CBC News reports at least 21 people killed and 80 wounded; The Jerusalem Post reports at least 16 killed and 57 wounded, including five police officers; Al Jazeera reports at least 27 killed, among them six civilians and 15 police officers, with at least 75 injured according to sources it spoke to. Provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed, whose name appears in all three reports, said a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into the mosque or its outer wall. After the blast, gunmen exchanged fire with officers, and reports differ on the number of attackers killed, from six to all seven.
Vehicle bomb at mosque near police compound in Kohat, Pakistan kills at least 16, with casualty tolls varying by source
A vehicle bomb exploded on Friday at a mosque inside or adjacent to a police compound in Kohat, a district in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, as gunmen tried to storm the site, according to police and rescue officials cited by CBC News, The Jerusalem Post (citing Reuters) and Al Jazeera English. Casualty figures differ: CBC News reports at least 21 people killed and 80 wounded; The Jerusalem Post reports at least 16 killed and 57 wounded, including five police officers; Al Jazeera reports at least 27 killed, among them six civilians and 15 police officers, with at least 75 injured according to sources it spoke to. Provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed, whose name appears in all three reports, said a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into the mosque or its outer wall. After the blast, gunmen exchanged fire with officers, and reports differ on the number of attackers killed, from six to all seven.
CBC News, citing police chief Zulfiqar Hameed, described an attacker apparently ramming an explosives-laden vehicle into the mosque, adding that at least seven armed gunmen attempted to enter the police compound and exchanged fire with officers, and that six of the gunmen were killed. CBC also reported that one suicide bomber attacked the nearby office of an intelligence agency. The Jerusalem Post reported that all seven attackers were killed in the explosion and the ensuing gun battle. Al Jazeera, citing its correspondent Kamal Hyder, reported that at least six of the attackers were killed.
The compound housed counterterrorism police who had carried out operations against militants across the province in recent years, according to CBC News. CBC reported photos from the scene showing the outer wall of the police offices collapsed and the mosque badly damaged, with smoke rising over the site after a blast that witnesses and residents said was heard far away. The Jerusalem Post reported that videos shared by rescuers showed the boundary wall ripped apart and people pulling the wounded from debris as ambulances arrived. Al Jazeera likewise reported the mosque was badly damaged and the police station's outer wall collapsed, and that residents said the blast was heard at a distance.
CBC News, citing senior rescue official Bilal Faizi, said most of the dead and wounded had been attending prayers at the mosque, and that most of those killed were police officers according to hospital officials. Al Jazeera, citing Bilal Faizi via The Associated Press, said most of the wounded were worshippers. Al Jazeera separately cited Dr Tahir Shah, via the dpa news agency, as saying at least 15 bodies and more than 50 injured were taken to hospital.
The attack came a day after a roadside bomb struck a security forces convoy in the northwestern Hangu district and killed six soldiers, according to CBC News and Al Jazeera. Government troops also conducted raids in various areas on Thursday and killed 10 militants believed to be members of the Pakistani Taliban, the military and police said, as reported by both CBC News and Al Jazeera.
CBC News noted that in 2023 a suicide bomber killed 101 people in an attack inside a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. CBC and Al Jazeera both reported that the Pakistani Taliban, formally Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is separate from but allied with Afghanistan's Taliban, which returned to power in 2021, and that the TTP has stepped up attacks on police and civilians in recent years.
CBC News, The Jerusalem Post and Al Jazeera all reported that Pakistan accuses Kabul of sheltering the TTP and turning a blind eye to cross-border militant attacks, and that Afghanistan's Taliban government denies the allegation; The Jerusalem Post quoted the Afghan government saying militancy is Pakistan's domestic problem. CBC reported that tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained high since Pakistan targeted alleged TTP hideouts in Afghanistan in 2025, triggering border clashes, and that Qatar and Turkey mediated a ceasefire while China later facilitated peace talks that failed to produce an agreement. CBC also reported, citing Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency, that Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Asim Malik, and said Turkey would keep working to resolve Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions through dialogue; Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Afghanistan Taliban, said Thursday that top officials in Kabul held talks with Kalin and a senior Qatari security official.
Al Jazeera quoted its correspondent Kamal Hyder saying Kohat is close to the Afghan border, is the main city en route to North Waziristan and lies on the way to Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, areas that have seen deadly attacks in recent months.
Where sources differ
- Death toll: CBC News reports at least 21 killed; The Jerusalem Post reports at least 16 killed; Al Jazeera reports at least 27 killed, including six civilians and 15 police officers.
- Number of wounded: CBC News reports 80 wounded; The Jerusalem Post reports 57 wounded; Al Jazeera reports at least 75 injured according to sources it spoke to, and separately cites Dr Tahir Shah, via dpa, saying more than 50 injured were taken to hospital.
- Responsibility: The Jerusalem Post reports that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan issued a statement disowning Friday's attack, while Al Jazeera reports that a TTP faction, Ittehadul Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. CBC News reports that no group immediately claimed responsibility and that suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban. The three accounts are not reconciled.
- Number of attackers killed: CBC News reports six of at least seven gunmen were killed; The Jerusalem Post reports all seven attackers were killed; Al Jazeera reports at least six attackers were killed.
- CBC News reports that one suicide bomber attacked the nearby office of an intelligence agency in addition to the mosque bombing; this detail does not appear in The Jerusalem Post or Al Jazeera accounts.
- None of the sources reconciles the differing death and injury tolls, which range from at least 16 to at least 27 killed and from 57 to 80 wounded.
- None of the sources explains the discrepancy between The Jerusalem Post's report that the TTP disowned the attack and Al Jazeera's report that a TTP faction claimed it.
- No source provides a complete or independently verified list of the dead, or establishes the nationality or full identity of all victims.
- The Jerusalem Post's report that officers and their families were praying in the mosque at the time is not corroborated in the CBC News or Al Jazeera accounts.
- CBC News's report of a separate suicide bombing at a nearby intelligence agency office is not corroborated by the other two sources, and no source names the agency or confirms damage or casualties there.
- None of the sources states whether the attackers' entry into the compound was fully repelled or whether any gunmen escaped.
- No source provides a statement from the counterterrorism police unit based at the compound, from hospital administrators beyond brief toll figures, or from the families of the dead and wounded.
- The sources do not establish the current status of the Turkey- and Qatar-mediated efforts between Afghanistan and Pakistan, or whether the Kohat attack affected them.
- CBC News — original
- The Jerusalem Post — by REUTERS
- Al Jazeera English — by Al Jazeera Staff