Kohat Police Lines attack: toll rises to 21, 15 of them police, 100 injured

A suicide attack on the Police Lines in Kohat killed 21 people on Friday, 15 of them policemen, and injured more than 100. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed said six attackers were killed, including the bomber who detonated near the Special Branch building.

The toll has risen through the day. Police put it at seven in the first hour, then 11, then 15, then 16. By Friday evening Geo News and The Express Tribune both reported 21 dead, 15 of them police, with more than 100 wounded. Casualties are at the District Headquarters Hospital in Kohat, where blood donations are still being sought. Tolls after an attack of this kind almost always move upward as the wounded are counted and rubble is cleared.

The attack began when an explosives-laden vehicle was driven into the gate of the old Police Lines and detonated. It went off during Friday prayers, next to a mosque inside the compound. The blast tore off the outer section of the mosque and brought down a wall.

Gunmen followed the bomb

The vehicle bomb was the way in, not the whole attack. Gunfire started immediately afterwards and seven militants tried to get inside the compound. Some moved towards the Counter Terrorism Department building and were shot there. Roughly three reached the Special Branch building, where one of them set off a second suicide vest during the firefight.

Six attackers were killed in all, the IG said. The clearing operation ran for hours after the first blast.

Who claimed it

The Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Ittehadul Mujahideen claimed the attack. Officials described the attackers as Fitna al Khawarij, the state's term for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi called the targeting of innocent citizens deeply regrettable and unacceptable. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the cowardly acts cannot weaken the nation's resolve. Naqvi returned to the attack later on Friday while warning organisers of the planned Islamabad march that the state would not allow public roads to be occupied.

Why Kohat, and why the Police Lines

Kohat sits at the entrance to the tribal districts, on the road that runs from Peshawar down towards Hangu, Orakzai and North Waziristan. A Police Lines is a compound, not a station: barracks, offices, families, a mosque, a parade ground. It holds the police of an entire district in one place, which is what makes it a target and what makes an attack there so costly.

The same compound was hit in 2010, when a blast killed 20 people and wounded more than 90. On Friday's count this attack is the deadlier of the two.

The pattern in this attack, a vehicle bomb to open the gate followed by gunmen going through the breach, is the one used repeatedly against security compounds in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past two years. It is designed to get men inside a hardened site rather than simply to kill at the perimeter.

What it follows

This comes in a week in which security forces reported operations in North Waziristan and Hangu, where six soldiers were martyred and 10 militants killed. Our report on those operations is here: six soldiers martyred, 10 militants killed in North Waziristan and Hangu.

Kohat district police have asked people to keep clear of the Police Lines area while the site is cleared and evidence is collected.

This story will be updated as the toll and the investigation are confirmed.