Suicide bomb attack in Balochistan kills four, injures dozens

Islamabad: Five people, including three children and two adults, have died and around 38 more injured, many of them critically, in a blast targeting a bus carrying children of Army Public School (APS) in Balochistan’s Khuzdar area on the Zero Line at Karachi-Quetta Highway on Wednesday.

Authorities suspect the attack was carried out using a planted Improvised Explosive Device (IED), completely destroying the APS bus and raising fears of further casualties.

Local officials confirmed that the injured have been transported to Central Military Hospital (CMH) in Khuzdar for treatment, while law enforcement has cordoned off the area to collect evidence.

Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the attack, vowing that his government will not only "expose the terrorists" operating in Balochistan but also eradicate them completely.

Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also denounced the cowardly and ghastly attack targeting innocent school-going children in the region.

"Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly attack will be hunted down and brought to justice," the ISPR maintained.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also strongly condemned the cowardly attack, stating, "Our heartfelt sympathies are with the bereaved families of the children who lost their loved ones," adding that "the beasts who carried out the cowardly attack on innocent children deserve no mercy."

Last week, bodies of at least four labourers, hailing from different parts of Pakistan's Punjab province, were found in Balochistan’s Nushki district.

Details revealed that the incident happened in the Gulangoor area of Nushki district in Balochistan on May 14. The bodies of the victims were shifted to Teaching Hospital in Noshki for medico-legal procedures. Investigation revealed the identities of the victims, confirming that they hailed from different parts of the Punjab province.

Labourers, workers, and government officials from the Punjab province have been targeted by separatist Baloch groups in the recent months in major attacks where the identities of the citizens were checked before killing them.

(inputs from IANS)