- By Ajeet Kumar
- Wed, 21 May 2025 01:25 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
At least five, including three children, were killed and 38 others injured when a school bus was hit by a blast in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Wednesday morning. The blast occurred in the Khuzdar district, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti. The bus was targeted when it was near Zero Point. Three children were killed in the blast while 38 others were injured, Dashti said, adding that the bodies and those injured were shifted to a nearby hospital.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the explosion. “The beasts who target innocent children do not deserve any leniency,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Around 40 students were on the bus that was headed to an army-run school, and, several have sustained injuries, said Yasir Iqbal, the administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident took place. Pakistan's military and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif swiftly released statements condemning the violence. Sharif pointed fingers at New Delhi, saying "Indian terror proxies" were involved in the attack. However, neither Sharif nor the Army shared evidence linking the attack to New Delhi. The Indian government is yet to respond to the allegations.
At least three children and two adults were killed in the attack, the army said in a statement.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours are high after they struck a ceasefire on May 10. The latest military escalation, in which the two countries traded missiles, was sparked after Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killed at least 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam region.
READ: Balochistan Bomb Blast: 4 Killed, 20 Injured In Massive Explosion In Killa Abdullah
Southwestern Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area, but smallest by population. The province of some 15 million people in the southwest of the country is home to key mining projects but has been roiled by a decades-old insurgency. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which was reminiscent of one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan's history when an attack on a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014 killed more than 130 children.
It was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a terror outfit. Attacks by terror groups in Balochistan have risen in recent years. The Baloch Liberation Army, a terror group, blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage in March, killing 31.
(With inputs from agencies)