Pakistan mosque bombing kills 7, wounds more than 30 in Kohat

At least seven people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in a bomb blast at a mosque in north-western Pakistan.

The explosion happened on September 18, in Kohat district, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near a building housing police offices, according to police and rescue officials, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

Bilal Faizi, a senior rescue official, said most of those wounded were worshippers. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital, where an emergency was declared to deal with the number of casualties.

The blast was powerful enough to badly damage nearby shops and homes, local police said. Footage posted on social media showed the mosque's roof had collapsed, with rescuers and residents pulling injured people from the rubble and carrying them to ambulances.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police are likely to suspect Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, which has stepped up attacks on police and civilians in recent years.

In 2023, a suicide bomber killed 101 people in an attack inside a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The TTP is separate from but allied with Afghanistan's Taliban, which returned to power in 2021. Pakistan has repeatedly accused Kabul of sheltering the TTP and turning a blind eye to cross-border militant attacks, allegations denied by the Afghan government.

By Aghakazim Guliyev