Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province witnessed another deadly attack on Friday, September 18, when an explosion near a police facility in Kohat killed at least 16 people, including five police personnel, and injured dozens others. The attack took place at the Old Police Lines compound during Friday prayers.
This once again highlights that Pakistan is losing control of its regions one by one, Balochistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan forces are no longer welcomed anywhere.
According to police officials, an explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into the gate of the police compound. A subsequent suicide attack was reported near the Special Branch building. Security personnel also exchanged fire with attackers inside the compound, with police saying one attacker was killed.
The blast occurred close to a mosque where police personnel, their families and other civilians had gathered for Friday prayers. The explosion caused severe damage to the mosque and surrounding buildings. Rescue teams rushed the wounded to hospitals, with local authorities declaring an emergency. Reports put the number of injured at more than 30, while some reports said more than 50 people were wounded.
No group had immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistani authorities have increasingly faced attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated militant groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The province, which borders Afghanistan, has remained one of the main areas of militant violence in Pakistan.
The Kohat attack came just a day after a roadside bomb struck a security forces convoy in neighbouring Hangu district, killing six soldiers. Pakistan’s military subsequently reported that security forces had killed 10 suspected militants in separate operations in Hangu and North Waziristan.
The latest attack comes amid an escalating cycle of militant attacks and security operations across northwestern Pakistan. It also underscores the particular vulnerability of police and security installations, even as Pakistani forces continue counterterrorism operations across the region.
The incident has once again placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the centre of Pakistan’s internal security concerns, with authorities now facing the task of securing sensitive installations while preventing further attacks in a province that has experienced renewed militant activity.
