A bus carrying students was targeted in a blast in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district on Wednesday morning, leaving three children among five dead, while several others were injured, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
“In yet another cowardly and ghastly attack planned and orchestrated by terrorist state of India and executed by its proxies in Balochistan, innocent school-going children’s bus was targeted today in Khuzdar,” a statement by the ISPR reads.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif subsequently reached Quetta later in the day for security briefings and the law and order situation in the province after the talk.
The ISPR said that as per the initial reports, “three innocent children and two adults have embraced martyrdom and multiple children have sustained injuries.”
It further said that “after having miserably failed in the battlefield, through these most heinous and cowardly such like acts, Indian proxies have been unleashed to spread terror and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
The statement said that “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.”
It noted that India had “failed” in Pakistan’s Operation Bunyanum Marsoos during the recent conflict, and its [proxies] were “being hunted [down] by military and law enforcement agencies”.
“Use of terrorism as a state policy by [the] Indian political government is abhorrent and reflective of their low morality and disregard of [sic] basic human norms,” the ISPR said.
“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,” the military vowed.
Pakistan Armed Forces, with the support of the brave Pakistani nation, stand “united to uproot Indian sponsored terrorism from Pakistan in all its manifestations”, the ISPR said.
APP added that PM Shehbaz arrived in Quetta to review the law and order situation in the wake of the incident, accompanied by the defence, interior and information ministers.
The premier will preside over different meetings and briefings during his stay in the city, with a high-level security meeting focusing on the law and order situation in Balochistan also expected.
It earlier reported that he and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir would undertake an emergency visit to Quetta and be given a briefing on the attack “carried out by terrorists under the patronage of India”.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the two would also enquire after the health of those injured in the attack.
“The ceremony scheduled to be held this evening at Aiwan-i-Sadr in honour of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has been postponed at his own request due to the tragic attack in Khuzdar,” it added.
Last month, ISPR Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry accused India of activating its “assets” to intensify terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
He had detailed the arrest of a Pakistani terror suspect allegedly trained by India as “irrefutable evidence” of state-sponsored terrorism directed by Indian military personnel.
On Monday, the ISPR said 12 terrorists of “Indian proxy” outfits were killed by security forces in separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Earlier today, Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti had told Dawn.com that the blast occurred when the school bus was near the Khuzdar Zero Point.
The bodies and the injured were taken to the Khuzdar CMH, from where the seriously injured would be referred to medical facilities in Quetta and Karachi, the DC said.
Police, the Frontier Corps (FC) and other law enforcement agencies’ personnel have reached the site of the incident to collect evidence for an investigation.
While a probe was underway, the DC said preliminary findings indicated that the attack was a suicide blast.
Condemnations
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack on the Khuzdar school bus, describing it as a cowardly act.
“The attack on innocent children in a school bus by terrorists working under Indian patronage is a clear proof of their hostility towards education in Balochistan,” he said in a statement.
Expressing deep sorrow over the death of the children, PM Shehbaz said that the terrorists have “crossed all limits of barbarity”, vowing to bring them to their end.
“The sympathies of the entire nation, including mine, are with the families of these innocent children, who were victims of the brutality of terrorists.”
He directed the security forces to bring the perpetrators to justice, and showed support for the armed forces’ resolve to eradicate terrorism from the country.
President Asif Ali Zardari termed the attack a “heinous and inhumane crime.” He vowed to expose this “Indian-backed terrorism” at an international level.
“These terrorists do not want to see Balochistan developed,” he said in a statement.
Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind denounced the attack as the “hideous face of Indian state-sponsored terrorism”, as well as a “cowardly and inhumane act”.
In a statement, Rind echoed the ISPR’s stance, saying that India was “creating instability in Balochistan to hide its failures”. He called India’s “state-sponsored terrorism a threat to world peace.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the “explosion inside the bus near Khuzdar Zero Point”.
In a statement, he expressed deep sorrow and grief over the death of four children, and extended his condolences to their families.
“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.
Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan also denounced the attack, saying that “terrorism against innocent children was the height of cowardice”.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti vowed that they will not only expose every terrorist operating in the province, but also “eradicate them completely”.
“Following the success of Operation [Bunyanum Marsoos] and India’s disgraceful defeat, they have now resorted to cowardly and shameful tactics,” he wrote on X.
Later, while talking to the media, Bugti said they had solid information that Ajit Doval, the Indian national security adviser, was planning something in Balochistan but did not expect him to target children.
He said four children were slain while there were 42 injured in the attack.
“We had intelligence regarding this but to target innocent children, this is [India’s] cowardice.”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) strongly condemned the “heinous” attack.
“The deliberate targeting of schoolchildren — innocent noncombatants in every sense — is a red line that must never be crossed. This act violates the most basic tenets of humanity and international humanitarian law,” the organisation said in a statement posted on X.
It said the “continued failure of the federal and provincial governments to prevent such attacks highlights serious and persistent lapses in providing security to common citizens”.
It added that the state had an “obligation to uphold law and order by strengthening civilian institutions and the rule of law — not through indiscriminate kinetic responses.”
The HRCP called for the “immediate identification and prosecution of the perpetrators and their enablers through lawful means”.
It also stressed the “urgent need for a meaningful political dialogue to address the deep-rooted problems of representation, governance and resource distribution in Balochistan”.
Additional reporting by Imran Gabol.
