Suicide Car Bomb Hits Pakistan Mosque in Kohat, Kills at Least 16

A car bomb tore through a mosque next to police headquarters in Kohat, in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Friday, September 18, 2026, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 50 during Friday prayers, according to BBC News, Al Jazeera and Newsday.

Provincial police chief Zulfikar Hameed told Reuters the attack was a suicide bombing. A vehicle loaded with explosives was driven into the mosque's entrance, according to BBC News, and gunmen then tried to storm the adjacent police compound, exchanging fire with officers, according to Newsday and Al Jazeera. Pakistan's New Indian Express reported a second explosion also struck the Special Branch building during that firefight.

Five police officers and 10 to 11 civilians were among the dead, according to rescue official Bilal Faizi as cited by Newsday and the Associated Press. Dr. Tahir Shah, of District Headquarters Hospital, told the dpa news agency that 15 bodies and more than 50 wounded had been brought in, with several patients in critical condition, meaning the toll could still climb. The mosque's roof and part of the police compound's outer wall collapsed in the blast, according to Al Jazeera and the New Indian Express, and residents said the explosion was heard from a considerable distance.

BBC News, Al Jazeera and Newsday all reported that no group had claimed responsibility as of Friday, while noting suspicion would likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) or a regional ISIL affiliate, both of which regularly target security forces in the area. The New Indian Express and Ground News, however, reported that a group calling itself Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan claimed the attack. That group, described as an alliance of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction, Harakat Inqilab-e-Islami Pakistan, and Lashkar-e-Islam, was formed in April 2025. Outlets working from the same wire material (BBC, Al Jazeera, Newsday) held off on naming a perpetrator, while the New Indian Express, citing Pakistan's PTI news agency, reported a specific claim. As of Friday, Pakistani authorities had not publicly confirmed which account is accurate.

A region already on edge

The mosque bombing landed one day after a roadside bomb killed six soldiers in a convoy in the nearby Hangu district, according to Al Jazeera and Newsday. Pakistani military and police also said they killed 10 fighters believed linked to the TTP during raids conducted Tuesday through Thursday in the region.

Militancy in Pakistan's northwest has surged since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, according to BBC News and Newsday. Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban government of allowing groups like the TTP to operate and plan attacks from Afghan soil. Kabul denies this and calls the violence Pakistan's internal problem, a denial both the BBC and Al Jazeera reported directly. The dispute has led to intermittent cross-border strikes between the two governments in recent months.

Friday's bombing recalls the March 2023 suicide attack inside a mosque in Peshawar, the provincial capital, which killed 101 people, according to Newsday and Ground News. That earlier attack, like this one, targeted a mosque located inside a police compound.

The official response

President Asif Ali Zardari offered condolences and wished for the recovery of the injured, according to BBC News. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and ordered authorities to speed up rescue operations, according to multiple outlets. Pakistan's interior ministry said the "cowardly actions" of the attackers would not weaken the "nation's firm resolve," according to Al Jazeera. Police chief Hameed said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police "stands as an iron wall against terrorism," according to the New Indian Express.

Rescue teams under Rescue 1122, led by spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi, were still pulling survivors from the rubble as of Friday afternoon, according to the New Indian Express. With the gunfight at the site reported as ongoing in initial accounts and several wounded in critical condition, the death toll had not been finalized as of Friday. Whether Pakistani authorities ultimately attribute the bombing to the TTP, an ISIL-linked cell, or the Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan alliance named by PTI remains an open question, and no formal investigative finding had been released by any of the sources reviewed.