Five people, including three children and two adults, have died and around 38 more injured, many of them critically, in a blast targetting a bus carrying children of Army Public School (APS) in Balochistan’s Khuzdar area on the Zero Line at Karachi-Quetta Highway, on Wednesday.
The attack, suspected to be a planted Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast, targetted an APS bus carrying dozens of school children. The blast completely destroyed the bus, raising concerns of more casualties.
Local authorities in Khuzdar confirmed the attack, stating that the injured have been shifted to Central Military Hospital (CMH) in Khuzdar for treatment, while authorities have cordoned off the area to collect evidence from the scene.
Condemning the attack, Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said that his government will not only "expose the terrorists" operating in Balochistan but also eradicate them completely. Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also slammed the cowardly and ghastly attack targetting the innocent school-going children of 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 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 targetted by separatist Baloch groups in the recent months in major attacks where identities of the citizens were checked before killing them.