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The blast occurred at a mosque building near police headquarters
Fifteen police officers and a four-year-old child are among those killed in the attack, which also involved gunmen firing on a police facility in the city of Kohat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan’s APP news agency reported.
Video found by BBC Verify shows the site covered in rubble and people tending to casualties.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “his best wishes for the swift recovery of those injured in the explosion” in a statement.
The blast is reported to have occurred around 13:15 local time (08:15 GMT) while Friday prayers were taking place.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police Insp Gen Zulfikar Hameed described it as a “suicide attack”, according to news agency Reuters, which also reported that all seven attackers had been killed in the explosion and the gun battle that followed.
No group has so far said it carried out the attack.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif condemned it. A clearance operation is under way at the site.
Militancy in Pakistan’s border areas has risen sharply in recent months, with armed groups targeting the military and police.
Islamabad says militants use Afghanistan as a safe haven to train and plan attacks in Pakistan. Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies the accusation and says militant groups are a domestic problem for Pakistan. (BBC)
