At least 16 killed in car bomb at mosque near police compound in Pakistan

At least 16 people have been killed in Pakistan after a vehicle carrying explosives rammed into a police compound and a gunfight broke out.

It happened as officers were praying at a mosque inside the compound in Kohat - in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

All seven attackers were killed in the explosion and gun battle that followed, police said.

Five officers are among the dead and most of those killed were worshippers at the mosque, according to senior rescue official Bilal Faizi.

Fifty-seven others were injured in the incident, with video showing the compound's boundary wall destroyed by the blast.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack.

It comes amid a surge in violence by militants who want to overthrow the federal government.

The Pakistani Taliban issued a statement disowning the attack, but the group is believed to be behind many of the attacks on police and civilians in recent years.

On Thursday, six soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the northwestern Hangu district.

It happened the same day as troops carried out raids which police and military said killed 10 suspected Taliban militants.

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In 2023, a suicide bomber also killed 101 people inside a mosque in the Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's capital.

Pakistan's Taliban is separate - but allied - to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's government often accuses its neighbour of harbouring militants and allowing them to plan cross-border attacks from there - something Kabul denies.

(c) Sky News 2026: At least 16 killed in car bomb at mosque near police compound in Pakistan