At least six dead in suicide bomb attack on school bus in Pakistan
At least six people, including four children, were killed when a suicide car bomber struck a school bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday.
Officials said some 38 others were wounded in what is the latest attack in the tense south-western Balochistan province.
There are fears the death toll may rise as several children were said to be in a critical condition.
A local deputy commissioner, Yasir Iqbal, said the attack took place on the outskirts of Khudzar as the bus transported them to their military-run school in the city.
The province has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army.
Troops quickly arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area while ambulances transported the victims to hospitals in the city. Local television stations aired footage of the badly damaged bus and scattered debris.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in the region.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep sorrow over the children’s deaths.
He called the perpetrators “beasts” who deserve no leniency, saying the enemy had committed an act of “sheer barbarism by targeting innocent children”.
The military also issued a statement, alleging the bombing was planned by neighbouring India and carried out by “its proxies” in Balochistan.
There was no immediate comment from New Delhi.
Most of the attacks in the province are claimed by the BLA, which Pakistan claims has India’s backing, an accusation India denies.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also blamed India, without providing any evidence to support the claim, and vowed that the government would bring the perpetrators to justice.
Pakistan regularly blames India, its archrival, for violence at home.
Wednesday’s attack comes less than two weeks after the nuclear-armed neighbours agreed on a ceasefire following their most intense military action in decades.
By Rédaction Africanews
