Four children killed in bus attack

At least four children were killed and 30 injured on Wednesday in a suicide attack on their school bus in Balochistan, a region in southwestern Pakistan, local authorities said.

A local deputy commissioner, Yasir Iqbal, said the attack took place in Khuzdar district when the bus was carrying children to a school for military personnel.

“According to the initial results of the investigation, this was a suicide attack ,” he added.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of the children. Officials said they feared the death toll could rise further as several children were in critical condition.

In recent days, four civilians and four paramilitary personnel have been killed by bombs in Balochistan.

The province has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with a number of separatist groups carrying out attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.

The attack has not yet been claimed, but the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Islamic State group's regional wing (IS-K) regularly claim responsibility for attacks in the province.

Earlier this week, the BLA vowed more attacks on “the Pakistani army and its collaborators” and said its aim was to “lay the foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and independent Balochistan.”

Most schools and colleges in Pakistan are run by the government or the private sector, although the military also operates a significant number of institutions for children of civilians and serving and retired military personnel.

In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban carried out the country's deadliest school attack, targeting an army-run institution in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 154 people, most of them children.