At least 16 killed in explosion and armed attack on police station in northern Pakistan
At least 16 people were killed and 37 others injured in an explosion and armed attack targeting a police station in northern Pakistan on Friday, according to officials, as the Pakistani president quickly accused an armed group of being behind the attack.
A senior official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial police told Agence France-Presse that 16 people were killed, including five police officers.
The official, who did not wish to be identified, added, “Four attackers were killed, including a sniper and a suicide bomber, while the search operation is still ongoing.”
Search and rescue operations continued following the explosion in the city of Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (north), according to Bilal Ahmed Faizi of the regional rescue authority.
Faizi explained that the authority deployed more than 45 paramedics to the scene, specifically at the city’s old police station, in a town with a population of approximately 220,000.
Provincial Police Chief Dhul Qarnain Hamid told Agence France-Presse that “the investigation into the nature of the explosion is still ongoing.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the region has been witnessing violence carried out by the militant Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his sorrow over the casualties, extending his “wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured in the explosion.”
He stated, “The complete eradication of the ‘fitna of the Khawarij and terrorists’ supported from outside is essential for the security of the homeland,” in reference to the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan holds extremist groups, which it says are based in Afghanistan, responsible for the rise in attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southern border province of Balochistan, but the Taliban government denies any Afghan involvement.
These accusations have sparked a sharp dispute and armed clashes between the two neighboring countries, with Pakistan carrying out deadly airstrikes that it said targeted militants on Afghan soil.
However, the Taliban government in Kabul and the United Nations confirmed that dozens of civilians were killed in the Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.
