ISLAMABAD, Sept 18 (Reuters) – At least 16 people, including five police personnel, were killed in northwest Pakistan on Friday after a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a police facility as people were praying at a mosque inside, police said.
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 said.
It was a suicide attack, he added.
There was 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 said.
A gun battle was still raging between police and the attackers, and one assailant wearing an explosives-laden vest had been killed, the statement said.
The interior ministry said the “cowardly actions” of the attackers could not weaken the “nation’s firm resolve”.
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.
(Reporting by Islamabad bureau, writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh)
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