Islamabad - At least 11 people were killed and 30 others injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police station in north-western Pakistan on Thursday, police said. The incident occurred in Kohat, a garrison town 60 kilometres south of Peshawar, the capital of troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which has seen a number of terrorist attacks in recent months.
A single suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at the main gate of the police station on a busy road, causing the building to collapse.
"It was a suicide attack which killed 11 people and injured 30 more," police spokesman Fazal Naeem said by phone.
The dead included three policemen and eight civilians, he added.
The injured were rushed to the nearby Kohat hospital, where some of them were in critical condition.
Police said nearly 100 kilograms of explosives were used in the attack that brought down nearly half of the police building.
A police guard said that the bomber first tried to enter the residential buildings for police officers but after finding security guards at the gate he moved on and struck the police station.
He said the bomber was around 20 years of age and sported a beard.
Kohat has been a target of militant attacks as it houses permanent military installations and is used as key supply depot for the military deployed at forward positions in the adjacent tribal areas.
Last month a suicide bomber struck in the suburbs of the city, killing 33 people.
Also on Thursday, Taliban gunmen attacked the headquarters of the civilian Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and two police training schools in the capital of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province. Twenty-five people were killed in the shooting, among them 10 of the attackers, officals said.
In Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, at least one child was killed when an explosion ripped through a residential area later that day.
Taliban have intensified attacks on civilian and security targets in recent days as Pakistani troops prepare for a major assault in South Waziristan tribal district, a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
