A car-bomb attack on a mosque at a police compound in north-western Pakistan has killed at least 21 people and injured more than 100, officials say.
Fifteen police officers and a four-year-old child are among those killed in the suicide attack, which also involved gunmen firing on the police facility in the city of Kohat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan’s APP news agency reported.
Video found by BBC Verify shows the site covered in rubble and people tending to casualties.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police suggested a faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, carried out the attack.
A car loaded with explosives rammed into the entrance of the mosque at about 13:15 local time (08:15 GMT), police say. Friday prayers were taking place at the time.
At least six of the attackers were killed in the explosion and the gun battle that followed, according to a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police spokesperson.
In a post on X, the force said it was “determined to foil the nefarious designs of Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the designation used by officials to refer to the Pakistani Taliban.
The group was set up in 2007 with the aim of enforcing its strict version of Islamic law and is allied with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “his best wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion” in a statement, and called for the “complete elimination” of foreign-backed terrorists.
