ISLAMABAD: At least four students were killed and over 38 others injured when a bomb went off near a school bus in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Wednesday, the police and government officials said.
Yasir Iqbal, a local deputy commissioner, said that the attack took place in Balochistan province's Khuzdar district when the bus was taking children to the school.
Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area soon after.
Initially, officials had said that four children had been killed in the blast. However, they later revised to inform that two adults were among those dead and said that they fear the toll might rise further as several children were in critical condition.
Though no group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, suspicion is expected to be on ethnic Baloch separatists who often target security forces and civilians in the region, the report added.
Pakistan's interior minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed strong condemnation for the attack and condoled the deaths of the children. Describing the perpetrators as "beasts" who deserve no leniency, Naqvi said that the enemy had committed an act of "sheer barbarism by targeting innocent children".
An investigation into the incident has been kicked off to determine the nature of the explosives, said the police.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
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