3 children among 6 killed in suicide attack targeting school bus in Pakistan's Balochistan

Islamabad: A suicide attacker targeted a school bus in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Wednesday, killing at least six people, including three children, and wounding 38 others, officials said.

The incident occurred in the Khuzdar district when the bus carrying schoolchildren was targeted, the army said in a statement.

Three children and three adults were killed, and multiple other children sustained injuries, it added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement on X, the Interior Ministry said the blast was carried out through a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED).

Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti said that 38 people were injured in the blast, which occurred near the Zero Point area, the Dawn newspaper reported.

After the attack, law enforcement agency personnel reached the site to collect evidence for an investigation, Yasir said, adding that preliminary findings indicated that the attack was a suicide blast.

The bodies and those injured were taken to the Combined Military Hospital, from where those with serious injuries were referred to medical facilities in Quetta and Karachi, he said.

In its statement, the army alleged that the groups linked to India carried out the attack, a claim dismissed by New Delhi as "baseless".

In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs said it has become "second nature" for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues in order to divert attention from its reputation as the "global epicenter" of terrorism.

"India rejects the baseless allegations made by Pakistan regarding Indian involvement with the incident in Khuzdar earlier today," Jaiswal said.

India condoles the loss of lives in all such incidents, he said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the school bus. In a statement, he expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of innocent children and their teachers in the incident, Geo News reported.

Sharif also alleged that the attack was carried out by terrorists backed by India. He, however, did not provide any evidence to support his claim.

He also instructed authorities to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the attack and extended condolences to the families of the victims.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the explosion and said, "The beasts who target innocent children do not deserve any leniency."

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) projects.

The province has been facing unrest for about two decades due to allegations by the local ethnic Baloch groups and parties that the federal government was exploiting its mineral wealth.

Following the attack, provincial Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti vowed to not only expose every terrorist operating in the province, but also “eradicate them completely”, the report said.

In a statement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur also condemned the attack.

"Targeting innocent children is an extremely shameful and cowardly act," said Gandapur. “We stand in complete solidarity with the grieving families, and no words of condemnation are enough for such a horrific incident," he added.