LEAD: 14 killed in explosion in Pakistan mosque in military garrison city

ISLAMABAD, July 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING DETAILS)

At least 14 worshipers were killed and several injured in an apparent suicide bomb attack in a mosque in Kohat cantonment in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday night, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said.

He said that the explosion took place during the night prayer in the mosque of Kohat Army training center in Pathan lines area, with most of the casualties feared to be armymen. The dead also include the priest of the mosque and two children.

Kohat is located about 150 kilometers west of Islamabad and is adjacent to Hangu where eight persons were killed by a suicide attack on the police training center earlier in the day.

''The security forces have surrounded the area and injured people have been rushed to the hospital. It looks like a suicide bomber attack,'' Sherpao said.

The latest attack has raised the tally in three suicide attacks on Thursday to 52, making it the bloodiest day since the retaliatory attacks triggered by the security forces' assault on the Red Mosque in Islamabad on July 12 in which 103 people were killed.

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