Pakistan police compound attack death toll rises to 31

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 said yesterday.

Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat on Friday afternoon.

The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing offices of the Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch and several other police units.

People yesterday offer funeral prayers for a policeman who was killed on Friday in an explosion inside the police headquarters at Kohat, Pakistan.

Photo: AFP

“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 on condition of anonymity. “Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex.”

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.

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

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

Several ambulances were seen lining a street near the compound.

Pakistani 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.”

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

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

“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 Tehreek-e-Taliban group.