At least five children were killed and 38 others were injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan's Balochistan in Khuzdar district on Wednesday, May 21, reported the news agency AP. Yasir Iqbal, a local deputy commissioner, told AP that the attack happened when the school bus was taking children to school in the city.
However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the suicide blast, the suspected attack was believed to be an ethnic Baloch separatists group that often target security forces and civilians in the region. Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister of Pakistan, expressed condolences confirming the incident in the Baloch region. He said perpetrators as no mercy and committed an act of "sheer barbarism by targeting innocent children".
Visuals From the Blast Site
In the past, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is allegedly involved in several such attacks. The United States designated BLA as a terrorist organisation in 2019. The attack comes just days after a car bombing attack near a market in Qillah Abdullah a city which border Afghanistan, killed four people and injured 20 others.
Earlier, a blast took place near Jabbar Market, causing massive damage to the building and triggering widespread panic in the region. The Pakistani military said that seven of its soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device struck their vehicle in Balochistan.