At least three children were among five individuals killed when a suicide bomber hit an army school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, the military stated on Wednesday, in an attack Pakistan blamed on Indian aligned forces.
Approx 40 students were on the bus that was headed to an army-run school and multiple sustained wounds, stated Yasir Iqbal, the administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident happened.
Pakistani military and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif swiftly issued a statements critisizing the violence and alleging “Indian terror proxies” of engagement in the attack. They did not share proof connecting the attack to India.
“Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice,” according to the military’s media wing.
Indian foreign ministry dismissed Pakistani allegations of India’s involvement.
“In order to divert attention from its reputation as the global epicentre of terrorism and to hide its own gross failings, it has become second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues,” Randhir Jaiswal, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated in a statement.
Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad remain high following they agreed a truce on May 10. Diplomats have warned the ceasefire is unstable, after the most dramatic escalation of hostilities between the nuclear-powered neighbours in decades.
Both allege the other of backing militancy on each other’s soil – a charge both parties reject. The latest military escalation, in which the two nations traded missiles, was sparked following New Delhi alleged Pakistan of backing a terrorist attack on tourists in the India’s Kashmir region, Pakistan rejects any involvement.
Suicide attack in Balochistan on Wednesday, at least three children and two adults were killed, according to the army. Local television showed pictures of three girls from middle and high school grades who were died.
No group immediately took responsibility for the explosion, which was reminiscent of one of the most lethal militant attacks in Pakistani history when an attack on a military school in the Peshawar’s northern city in 2014 died over 130 children.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an ultra-radical Islamist group, took responsibility of the attack.
Separatist groups Attacks in Balochistan have increased in current years. The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, exploded a railway track and carried passengers from a train hostage in March, killing 31. (Forelines)