Sixteen people were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle was rammed into the gate of the Old Police Lines in Kohat during Friday prayers, and gunmen then entered the compound (Express Tribune; Geo; Anadolu).
The casualties
| | | |—|—| | Killed | 16 | | — police | 5 | | — civilians | 11 | | Injured | about 57 | | Attackers killed | 6, including the bomber and a sniper |
Attackers are counted separately from the 16.
What happened
The compound houses a mosque, and the attack came at Friday prayer. A vehicle was driven into the gate and detonated, leaving a crater outside the mosque and collapsing part of its wall.
KP Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed: “The vehicle hit the gate and then exploded, and firing also took place.”
Seven armed men then entered the police lines. A second suicide blast followed at the Special Branch building during the exchange of fire. Police and the Counter Terrorism Department killed six of the attackers.
Tahir Ali Shah, medical superintendent at Kohat DHQ Hospital, said 15 bodies and more than 50 injured had been brought in.
Why the sequence matters
This was not a bombing. It was a breach followed by an assault — a vehicle used to open a fortified gate, and a team going in behind it while the defenders were dealing with the blast and with casualties from a mosque.
That design requires reconnaissance of the compound, knowledge of the prayer timetable, and a coordinated group. It is a considerably more capable operation than the drone drops and roadside attacks this newspaper has been reporting from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through the month.
What officials said
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi: “We stand shoulder to shoulder with the families of the martyrs in this hour of grief.”
Chief Minister Sohail Afridi: targeting innocent citizens is “extremely regrettable and condemnable”.
IG Hameed: “Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police is standing as an iron wall against terrorism.”
The month this lands in
| | | |—|—| | August attacks in KP | 54, against 36 in July | | Attempted drone attacks on KP police, Jan-Jul | more than 250 | | Counter-drone systems for Peshawar’s 118 facilities | 7 | | 9 September | Constable Zafran killed on patrol in Karak | | 16 September | two drone attacks on Peshawar police facilities |
Police in this province have spent the month stringing netting over their posts against threats from the air. Today they were attacked through the front gate.
On the numbers, which are provisional
Figures in the first hours of an attack move. The hospital reported 15 bodies while officials gave 16 killed; Anadolu’s early report counted the bomber within a total of 16, where police accounts place attackers outside it. The injured figure has been given as “over 50” and as 57.
We have used the police breakdown of 5 officers and 11 civilians, which two outlets give consistently, and we will correct it if it changes.
What is not established
No group has claimed responsibility. The identities of the attackers, the seventh man’s fate, the explosive quantity and the source of the vehicle are all unreported. No account has been given of how the vehicle reached the gate, which is the question an inquiry will have to answer.
[Image: Screengrab via The Express Tribune]
Correction, 19 September 2026. The casualty figures in this report have been superseded. The death toll is 21, not 16, and the breakdown is 15 police officers and six civilians — the reverse of the 5 police / 11 civilians split reported here. The injured figure is 103, not about 57, and all seven attackers were killed, not six. Responsibility has since been claimed by Ittihadul Mujahideen Pakistan, led by the Afghanistan-based Hafiz Gul Bahadur; this report said no group had claimed it. See our updated report.
Update, 24 September 2026: The final toll from the 18 September attack on the Old Police Lines in Kohat was 31 dead and 103 wounded, after a clearance operation that ran about 22 hours and in which eight attackers were killed. This report was published while the count stood lower, and an earlier update revised it to 21. The figure of 31 is the settled one. We are leaving the original text unchanged above and recording the correction here.
