Key points
- Injured and deceased shifted to nearby hospital
- Law enforcement agencies cordon off the area
- Condition of two injured children critical: Hospital sources
ISLAMABAD: At least four children were killed while 38 others were injured when a school bus was targeted in a suicide blast in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province’s Khuzdar district on Wednesday morning.
Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti confirmed the casualties to WE News.
Rescue and law enforcement personnel were rushed to the spot following the blast, the official said.
The bodies and the injured were taken to the Combined Military Hospital.
Deputy Commissioner Dashti also said the children were targeted in a suicide blast, however, further investigation into the nature of the blast was underway.
Police have cordoned off the area and begun collecting forensic evidence. Hospital sources reported that the condition of at least two of the injured children is critical.
“Explosion inside”
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the “explosion inside the bus near Khuzdar Zero Point”.
In a statement shared on X, the interior minister expressed deep sorrow and grief over the death of four children and extended his condolences to their families.
وفاقی وزیرداخلہ محسن نقوی کی خضدار زیرو پوائنٹ کے قریب بس میں دھماکے کی پرزور مذمت
وزیرداخلہ کا 4 بچوں کے جاں بحق ہونے کےواقعہ پر گہرے دکھ اور افسوس کا اظہار
جاں بحق بچوں کے لواحقین سے دلی ہمدردی و اظہار تعزیت
معصوم بچوں کو نشانہ بنانے والے درندےکسی رعایت کے مستحق نہیں۔— Ministry of Interior GoP (@MOIofficialGoP) May 21, 2025
“The beasts who target innocent children do not deserve any leniency. The enemy demonstrated barbarity by attacking innocent children,” Naqvi asserted.
“The attack on the school bus is a heinous conspiracy of the enemy to create instability in the country. With the unity of the nation, we will foil every conspiracy,” the interior minister vowed.
Naqvi also prayed for the speedy recovery of the wounded.
“Indian-sponsored terrorism”
“In yet another cowardly and ghastly attack planned and orchestrated by [the] terrorist state of India and executed by its proxies in Balochistan, [an] innocent school-going children[’s] bus was targeted today in Khuzdar,” Pakistan military’s media wing said in a statement.
In the statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that after having miserably failed on the battlefield, through these most heinous and cowardly acts, Indian proxies have been unleashed to spread terror and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Having failed in Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos and being hunted by military and law enforcement agencies, the ISPR said, these Indian terror proxies are being employed as a state tool by India to foment terrorism in Pakistan against soft targets such as innocent children and civilians.
“[The] use of terrorism as a state policy by Indian political government is abhorrent and reflective of their low morality and disregard for basic human norms,” the ISPR noted.
Planners, abettors, and executors of this cowardly Indian-sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice and the heinous face of India will be exposed in front of the entire world.
“Pakistan Armed Forces, with the support of a brave Pakistani nation, stand united to uproot Indian-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan in all its manifestations,” the military’s media wing said.
