(Int Agency) At least six children were killed and dozens wounded in a blast targeting a school bus in Khuzdar, Balochistan, officials say.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said four children, the bus driver, and his assistant were killed in the attack on Wednesday. Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a government official in Khuzdar, said at least 38 people were wounded.
“The school bus belonged to Army Public School and was picking up children in the morning when it was attacked,” he told Al Jazeera.
Bugti told a news conference in Quetta that 46 students were on the school bus that was hit by a “vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack,” according to initial investigations.
“We have been airlifting the critically injured children to Quetta from Khuzdar,” Bugti said. He added it was “premature to confirm the nature of the attack” and that further investigations were ongoing. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan’s military, in a statement, condemned the violence and accused “Indian terror proxies” of involvement in the attack. It did not share evidence to support the claim.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “strongly condemned” the attack by “terrorists working under Indian patronage.”
