Death toll from Pakistan police headquarters attack rises to 31

Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 2,20,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on September 18 Death toll from Pakistan police headquarters attack rises to 31 The death toll from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan rose to at least 31, including 16 police personnel, a senior police official told AFP on Saturday, with fighting ongoing. The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and several other police units.

More than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing, the vast majority of them police personnel, and several were in a critical condition, the official said. Local militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- the Pakistani Taliban -- has claimed responsibility for the attack. Attackers had stormed the Old Police Lines complex in the town of Kohat in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sep 18.

Security officials inspect the site of a blast near the Old Police Lines complex in Kohat. (EPA Images pic)KOHAT: The death toll from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan rose to at least 31, including 16 police personnel, a senior police official told AFP on Saturday."At least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, have been killed and more than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing," the official said, adding that fighting was ongoing.Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on Friday afternoon.The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and several other police units."Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex," the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity."An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear," the official added.Pakistan has blamed the increase in attacks in KP and the southern border province of Balochistan on militancy emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies Afghan involvement.The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has carried out deadly airstrikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.The Taliban government in Kabul and the UN said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.