(Adnkronos) – At least 16 people, including five police officers, have died in an attack carried out inside the Kohat police complex, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in northern Pakistan. This was reported by the Inspector General of Police of the province, Zulfiqar Hameed, quoted by the Dawn newspaper, specifying that over 50 people were injured.
According to Hameed, a suicide bomber in a vehicle initially hit the complex gate. Some attackers then reportedly headed towards the counter-terrorism department building, where they were neutralized, while others reached another building, where a suicide bomber reportedly detonated himself. According to Dawn, the attack was launched by militants of ‘Fitna-ul-Khawarij’, a term used by Pakistani authorities to refer to members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Ttp) group and other formations considered terrorist.
The Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sohail Afridi, called the attack against innocent civilians “absolutely deplorable and unacceptable” and ordered authorities to ensure immediate care for the injured. “The nation’s morale cannot be broken by cowardly acts of terrorism,” he stated. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the attack, calling the complete elimination of foreign-backed terrorists “essential for national security,” while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif requested a detailed report on the explosion and ordered the acceleration of rescue operations.
