Pakistan police complex attack kills 31, injures over 100 as gunfight continues
Militants storm Kohat police HQ as deadly siege drags into second day
Kohat: The death toll from an explosion and gun attack at a police headquarters in northern Pakistan rose to at least 31, including 16 police personnel, a senior police official told AFP on Saturday, with fighting ongoing.
Attackers stormed the Old Police Lines complex at Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, on Friday afternoon.
The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Special Branch and several other police units.
"At least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, have been killed and more than 100 injured so far in the militant attack and suicide bombing," the official said.
"Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex," the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
An exchange of fire with them has been ongoing since late last night. Their exact number remains unclear," the official added.
A statement from the Kohat district health officer late on Friday said that more than 100 people had been injured, the vast majority of them police personnel, and several were in a critical condition.
Local militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- the Pakistani Taliban -- has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Rubble, blown-out walls
AFP images showed military personnel standing by piles of bricks, rubble and blown-out walls following the attack, with soldiers carrying assault rifles guarding the complex.
Several ambulances were seen lining a street near the police compound.
Pakistan has blamed the increase in attacks in KP and the southern border province of Balochistan on militancy emanating from Afghanistan, where the Taliban government denies Afghan involvement.
The accusations have sparked a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has carried out deadly airstrikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack on Friday evening, expressing "deep sorrow and regret over the injury of several people as a result of the blast".
He directed the "best medical assistance be provided to the injured" and called for a report into the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed "regret" over the casualties, sending his "best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured in the blast".
"The complete elimination of Fitna-al-Khawarij and terrorists operating with foreign backing is essential for national security," he said, using another term for the TTP group.
Earlier story:
Car bomb attack near mosque in Pakistan kills 21, injures 100
Following the explosion, police in Kohat said, at least seven "terrorists" stormed the compound and exchanged gunfire with officers, Dawn reported.
Six of the attackers, which included a suicide bomber, were killed in the initial gunfight. The last attacker was cornered by police and killed later.
Among the dead were 15 police officers and a 4-year-old child.
Local reporters said the attack was claimed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that supports a strict version of Islamic law.
"The nation's morale cannot be dampened by cowardly acts of terrorism," Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi told reporters.
President Asif Ali Zardari called for the "complete elimination" of the terrorist group, and expressed "his best wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion."
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed grief in a statement on X.
"The nation is standing with the families of the martyrs in this moment of grief," he said.
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37 Nigerians suspected of illegal mining die in custody
The men were found dead in their cell in a jail in Niger state in the northwestern part of Nigeria, near Benin.
The victims' bodies were taken to the state capital Minna to be examined.
The agency that detained them, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, at first blamed the deaths on "a suspected disease," The New York Times reported. But a survivor said that there were more than 60 people in a single cell with very little ventilation, food or water.
"We kept banging on the door," Dauda Shehu, 38, said in a phone interview with The Times from a hospital.
Shehu said he was lucky to be close to the cell door, where there was a tiny opening for air.
"When people started dying, we kept calling out to them, but they did not listen," Shehu said of the authorities. Some of those who died were denied water, so they drank their own urine, he said.
A family member whose 17-year-old brother was among the dead, asked how a disease could have killed so many detainees without affecting the guards, the BBC reported.
The father of a victim said relatives went to the NSCDC office trying to get their family member released, but were repeatedly told to return later.
"Unfortunately, the following day we got the news that our children had died," he told the BBC.
The men's deaths ignited ire in the area, triggering protests. Hundreds of protesters were in the streets of Minna, where the miners had been arrested. Police responded with gunfire and tear gas, and some protesters rioted and burned a government building, witnesses told The Times.
The incident was under investigation, said Mohammed Umar Bago, governor of the state. He said several officials were suspended and urged the protesters to remain calm. Bago declared three days of mourning and postponed the start of campaigning for elections, which are scheduled for January.
The men had been detained for illegal mining, which is common in parts of Africa. Many of the mines are managed by criminal and armed groups or by far away companies that exploit the miners.
