Suicide bomber blows up school bus in Pakistan: 5 victims, including children

A suicide bomber in a car blew up a school bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing five people, including at least three children, and wounding 38, officials said, UNN reports, citing AP.

Details

This is the latest attack in the tense province of Balochistan. This province has been the scene of a long-running insurgency involving various separatist groups, including the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which was designated as a terrorist group by the United States in 2019, the newspaper writes.

Local Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal said the attack took place on the outskirts of Khuzdar as the bus was carrying children to a military-run school.

Troops quickly arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area while ambulances transported the victims to hospitals in the city. Local television channels broadcast footage of the heavily damaged bus and scattered debris.

Photo: Al Jazeera/Khuzdar District Administration

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists who frequently attack security forces and civilians in the region, the newspaper writes.

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of the children. He called the perpetrators "beasts" who do not deserve leniency, saying that the enemy committed an act of "pure barbarism by attacking innocent children."

Officials, who initially reported that four children had died but later revised the death toll, saying that two adults were also among the dead, said they feared the death toll could rise further as several children were in critical condition.

The military also issued a statement saying that the blast was "another cowardly and horrific attack" likely planned by neighboring India and carried out by "its proxies in Balochistan," the newspaper writes.

The BLA, which Pakistan claims is supported by India, claims responsibility for most of the attacks in the province. India rejects such claims.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his condolences and also blamed India, without providing any evidence to support the claim.

Addendum

Pakistan regularly accuses India, its main rival, of violence at home. These accusations have intensified as tensions between the two nuclear powers have escalated amid cross-border escalation since last month over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, divided between the two but sought in its entirety by each.