A suicide bombing at a mosque in Pakistan left 15 people dead and over 50 injured.

A bomb went off inside a mosque in northwest Pakistan on Friday, leaving at least 15 people dead and 56 injured. The attack took place next to a building that housed police offices, and five police officers were among those slain.

According to Zulfiqar Hameed, the provincial police commander, the assailant crashed an explosives-laden car into the mosque in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. The mosque sustained significant damage and the police headquarters’ outside wall fell as a result of the attack.

According to authorities, two armed males tried to enter the police building and engaged in gunfire with officers. Reports state that one of the attackers has been killed. A senior rescue officer told news agency AFP that worshipers made up the majority of those injured in the explosion. A few of them are critically ill.

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, denounced the assault and lamented the deaths. The Pakistani President also extended his condolences for the fast recovery of those injured in the explosion.

The assault takes place one day after six soldiers were murdered when a roadside bomb in the northwest Hangu area attacked a security forces convoy. Ten extremists who were thought to be members of the Pakistani Taliban were slain by government troops during operations in different places on Thursday, according to the military and police.

In recent years, the Taliban in Pakistan have increased their attacks on both police and civilians. In 2023, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 101 people. The group is linked with but distinct from the Taliban in Afghanistan, which came back to power in 2021. Kabul is frequently accused by Pakistan of providing sanctuary to the TTP and ignoring cross-border militant activities. The accusations have been refuted by the Kabul government.