• Police lines cleared after 21-hour gun battle
• Death toll rises to 23, including 17 cops, six civilians
• Police probe possible Afghan link; KP CM meets families of martyrs
PESHAWAR: After 21 hours of intense exchanges of fire, including the use of heavy weapons, an overnight clearance operation following the deadly two-pronged assault near a mosque in Kohat district’s old police lines concluded on Saturday, with all eight terrorists killed.
The death toll rose to 23, including 17 policemen and six civilians, according to police and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials.
Police said the operation had been brought to a close after a prolonged gunbattle between terrorists and law enforcement personnel.
Asked about media reports of a possible Afghan link to the assault, a senior police official said the attack was being investigated and efforts were under way to identify the terrorists’ bodies. However, he added that the group which had claimed responsibility for the attack and its affiliates operated from Afghanistan.
“We are trying to establish identification of the killed terrorists. Ittehadul Mujahideen (which had claimed responsibility for the attack) is itself part of Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group, while Jamaatul Ahrar also operates from Afghanistan,” the official told Dawn.
Friday’s assault, in which an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near a mosque in Kohat police lines before terrorists stormed the compound and attacked police facilities, was the second-deadliest attack on the same police lines in almost 16 years.
In 2010, an attack on the police lines left 20 people dead and dozens of others, including children, injured.
The latest assault was also the second-deadliest attack on a police facility in KP since January 2023, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque at Peshawar’s police headquarters, leaving 84 people, mostly policemen, martyred and many others wounded.
“The operation has concluded. Elite Force commandos, CTD teams and security forces have cleared key parts of the buildings. Eight terrorists were killed in retaliatory action by police and security forces,” read an official statement issued by the office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Chief Zulfiqar Hameed.
According to the statement, the operation was led by CTD Additional IG Jawad Qamar. An earlier CTD statement said Mr Qamar was injured in a grenade attack by terrorists during the operation, adding that the attackers had entered the Special Branch building after the suicide attack near the mosque.
It said the additional IG sustained an injury to his hand in the grenade attack. After receiving first aid, he returned to the frontline to supervise the operation, the statement added.
The CTD said Mr Qamar had been on the frontline since Friday afternoon, supervising the operation against Fitna al-Khawarij — a term used by the state for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — alongside police personnel.
“Law enforcement agencies achieved success following an overnight operation. Police, CTD and security forces fought valiantly; these brave personnel are the pride of the nation,” the statement said.
KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi visited Kohat and met the families of police personnel and civilians martyred in the attack.
In a statement issued by his office, the chief minister paid tribute to the police, CTD, Special Branch, Rescue 1122, doctors, district administration and the people of Kohat for their courage and resilience.
Mr Afridi said the manner in which security personnel and other responders confronted the terrorists during the nearly 20-hour operation was highly commendable, adding that police personnel and civilians who lost their lives had made the ultimate sacrifice for the protection of the nation and the country.
Meanwhile, the bodies of two police officials, Inspector Naimatullah Marwat and Ismatullah Marwat, who were martyred in the attack, were shifted to their native Lakki Marwat district, while the body of SP Traffic Kohat Akbar Khan Shinwari was shifted to Hathian village in Mardan district.
Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2026
