Death Toll Rises to 31 in Pakistan Police Attack

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 has said.

More than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing,” the official said, adding that fighting was ongoing.

Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on the afternoon of Sep 18.

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

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