At least five killed in southwest Pakistan school bus blast
At least five people have been killed in a blast targeting a school bus in the Khuzdar district of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, the military said.
Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a government official in Khuzdar, said at least 38 people were wounded in the attack on Wednesday.
'The school bus belonged to Army Public School as it was picking children in the morning when it was attacked by the suicide bomber,' he told Al Jazeera.
Pakistan's military, in a statement, condemned the violence and accused 'Indian terror proxies' of involvement in the attack. It did not share evidence to support the claim.
Moreover, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif 'strongly condemned' the attack by 'terrorists working under Indian patronage.'
Sharif also offered his 'sympathies' to the families of those who were killed by the 'brutality'.
There was no immediate comment from New Delhi.
At least three children and two adults were killed in the attack, the army said in a statement.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack near Khuzdar's Zero Point area and expressed 'deep sorrow and grief' over those killed.
'The enemy attacked innocent children with barbarity. The attack on the school bus is a heinous conspiracy of the enemy to create instability in the country,' he said in a statement.
Authorities said that the death toll could increase due to the severity of the explosion.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Reporting from Islamabad, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said Pakistan is taking the attack on the school bus 'very seriously'.
'The fact that the Baloch Liberation Army, which is a banned outfit, has normally taken responsibility for these attacks – Pakistan says these groups are funded by the Indian intelligence agency,' Hyder said.
'Pakistan and India have, of course, been trading blame every time there is an attack across the border… [but] this is not the first time an attack has taken place in Balochistan province,' he added.
Balochistan province, which is rich in minerals and natural resources, has been home to a decades-long conflict between the government and ethnic Baloch separatists, who demand secession from Pakistan.
Wednesday's attack came days after a car bombing killed four people near a market in Qillah Abdullah, also in Balochistan.
Many attacks in the province are claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which Pakistan says enjoyed the backing of neighbouring India – a claim that New Delhi denies.
In one of the deadliest such attacks, BLA fighters killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, during an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan in March.
Earlier this week, the BLA promised more attacks on the 'Pakistani army and its collaborators' and said its goal is to 'lay the foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and independent Balochistan'.
Armed groups are also active in Balochistan and though it is unusual for separatists to target schoolchildren in the province, such attacks have been carried out in the restive northwest and elsewhere in the country in recent years.
Most schools and colleges in Pakistan are operated by the government or the private sector, though the military also runs a significant number of institutions for children of both civilians and of serving or retired army personnel.
In December 2014, armed group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) targeted APS in Peshawar, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in which more than 140 children were killed.
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