At least 16 killed in suicide attack on police facility in northwest Pakistan

At least 16 people, including five police personnel, have been killed in northwest Pakistan after a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a police facility as people were praying inside a mosque, police say.

The incident occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Kohat city, with the vehicle ramming into an outer wall of the police facility and gunmen who accompanied it opening fire, provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed says.

It was a suicide attack, he adds.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility.

The blast occurred close to a mosque where the police personnel, their family members, and other civilians were offering Friday prayers, a police statement says.

A gun battle is still raging between police and the attackers, and one assailant wearing an explosives-laden vest had been killed, the statement says.

Militancy in Pakistan’s border areas has ⁠risen sharply in recent months, targeting mainly the military and police.

Islamabad says the militants use safe havens in Afghanistan to ​train and plan attacks in Pakistan. Afghanistan’s Taliban government has denied the charge ​and said militancy is Pakistan’s domestic problem.