Suicide car bomb rams into school bus in Pakistan, killing four children and injuring 38 in ‘terrorist attack'
A suicide car bomber rammed into a school bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least four children and wounding 38 others, a government official said.
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A local deputy commissioner, Yasir Iqbal, said the attack occurred in Khuzdar, a district in Balochistan province, as the bus was transporting children to school in the city.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, though 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".
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2019.
Pakistan's Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan also condemned the attack, saying that “terrorism against innocent children was the height of brutality and cowardice”.
Khan seemed to suggest India was behind the attack, saying: "After being defeated in the battlefield, India is in a state of panic and has resorted to base tactics.
"This is a great tragedy on which the entire nation is mourning."
The latest attack came days after a car bombing killed four people near a market in Qillah Abdullah, a city in Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan.
Most of such attacks are claimed by BLA, which Pakistan says enjoyed the backing of neighbouring India.
In one of the deadliest such attacks in March, BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, during an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan.
It also comes amid increased military tensions between the neighbours that started earlier this month.
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On 7 May, India struck what it calls "terror infrastructure" inside Pakistan, days after a deadly militant attack on tourists in Pahalgam, a picturesque valley in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks.
After four tense days of deadly clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours, both countries agreed to a ceasefire on 10 May, announced by US President Donald Trump.