Death toll rises to 31 as suicide bomber rams car into Pakistan police mosque during Friday prayers

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026 · last updated 20 September 2026.

A four-year-old child and 15 police officers were among 31 people killed after a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a mosque inside a police compound in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while officers and their families were gathered for Friday prayers. More than 100 others were wounded, many critically, according to AFP. Armed men who accompanied the bomber opened fire on the compound; all seven attackers were killed between the blast and the subsequent gun battle.

Zulfikar Hameed, the provincial police chief, said the vehicle broke through the outer wall of a counter-terrorism police facility before the bomber detonated his charge.

The Pakistani Taliban issued a statement DISOWNING the attack, though no other group claimed responsibility and suspicion remains on militant networks along the Afghan border.

The assault came one day after a roadside bomb killed six soldiers in the nearby district of Hangu, highlighting a sharp surge in militant violence targeting Pakistan's security forces.