Death toll at 31 in Pakistan police compound attack, AFP reports

A suicide attack at a police compound in northwest Pakistan has resulted in a death toll of at least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, according to a senior police official cited by AFP and reported by several outlets. The attack occurred on Friday afternoon at the Old Police Lines complex in Kohat, a town of around 220,000 people in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

An attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into the police facility while gunmen stormed the compound as officers and their families were praying in a mosque.

More than 100 people have been injured in the militant attack and suicide bombing, with several in critical condition, according to the Middle East Eye and South China Morning Post. The police compound serves as a district-level police headquarters, housing key offices of the Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch, and several other police units.

The local militant group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for the attack, as reported by Middle East Eye and RTE News. Several militants are still holed up in the Special Branch section of the Kohat Police Complex, with an exchange of fire ongoing since late Friday night, according to RTE News and South China Morning Post.

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, Dawn - Pakistan, South China Morning Post, RTE News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.