Four children among six killed in Khuzdar attack on school bus

A blast near Zero Point in Balochistan’s district Khuzdar targeted a school bus on Wednesday, martyring six, including four students and wounding over a dozen, Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti has told reporters.

The chief minister said that among the martyred are the bus driver and his assistant, while those critically injured were being shifted via air to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta. 

A media report quoted security sources as claiming that three of the victims are grade six student Sania Soomoro, grade seven student Hifza Kousar, and grade 10 student Esha Saleem.

Separately, during a press conference in Quetta on Wednesday, the chief minister condemned the brutal act targeting innocent children, revealing that 44 children were onboard the bus targeted in the attack. 

“There was concrete intelligence about such an incident,” he said, adding, “However, we did not expect that innocent children would be targeted.”

The chief minister stated that the children were brutally martyred and injured, adding, “The enemy has stooped so low as to choose soft targets like innocent children.”

He further revealed that they were aware that the enemy could choose Balochistan in an attempt to overcome the humiliation of defeat in warfare. “The government and the state will hunt down each and every one of those responsible and send them to hell,” he vowed.

“These people take money from India to target innocent citizens,” he alleged, reminding the Afghan interim government that its territory was repeatedly being used against Pakistan.

Citing preliminary information, he said that the Khuzdar blast was not a suicide bombing but an IED attack. “Further facts will come to light after the investigation,” he stated. 

Earlier in the day, in a statement, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said, “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 bus was targeted today in Khuzdar.”

The military media wing further 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 (KP).

“Having failed in the Operation Bunnianum Marsoos and being hunted by military and law enforcement agencies, 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,” said the ISPR.

The use of terrorism as a state policy by Indian political government is abhorent and reflective of their low morality and disregard of basic human norms, the ISPR said, noting that the planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice and heinous face of India will be exposed in front of the entire world.

Additionally, the military media wing reaffirmed that with the support of the brave Pakistani nation, the Pakistan Armed Forces stand united to uproot Indian sponsored terrorism from Pakistan in all its manifestations.