Suicide bomber kills five on school bus in Pakistan's Balochistan
By Saleem Ahmed
At least three children were among five people killed when a suicide bomber struck an army school bus in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, the military said on Wednesday, in an attack that Pakistan blamed on Indian proxies.
Around 40 students were on the bus, which was headed to an army-run school, and several sustained injuries, said Yasir Iqbal, administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident took place.
Pakistan's military and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif swiftly condemned the violence and accused "Indian terror proxies" of involvement, although they did not share any evidence linking the attack to New Delhi.
"Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian- sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice," the military's media wing said.
India rejected Pakistan's accusations.
"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," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
India also declared an official of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi 'persona non grata', the second such expulsion in a week, for "indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status".
The Pakistani charge d'affaires was summoned and given a warning to ensure that Pakistani officials do not misuse their privileges and status, the ministry added.
Tensions remain high after India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire on May 10. Diplomats have warned that the truce is fragile, following the most dramatic escalation of hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades.
Both have traded accusations of supporting militancy on each other's soil - a charge that each denies. The latest escalation, in which the two countries traded missiles, was sparked when India accused Pakistan of supporting a militant assault on tourists in the Indian portion of the contested region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies any involvement.
In Wednesday's attack in Balochistan, at least three children and two adults were killed, the army said. Local television showed images of three dead girls from middle and high school.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, reminiscent of an attack on a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 130 children.
That attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an ultra-radical Islamist militant group.
Attacks by separatist groups in Balochistan have risen in recent years. In March, the Baloch Liberation Army blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage, killing 31 civilians, soldiers and staff.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
Islamic State reactivating fighters, eying comeback in Syria and Iraq
FILE PHOTO: A guard looks at Islamic State fighters through bars at al-Sina'a prison in Hasakah, Syria, January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman/File Photo By Ahmed Rasheed, Timour Azhari and Michael Georgy Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that Islamic State could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where the extremist group once imposed a reign of terror over millions. Islamic State (IS) has been attempting just that, according to more than 20 sources, including security and political officials from Syria, Iraq, the U.S. and Europe, as well as diplomats in the region. The group has started reactivating fighters in both countries, identifying targets, distributing weapons and stepping up recruitment and propaganda efforts, the sources said. So far, the results of these efforts appear limited. Security operatives in Syria and Iraq, who have been monitoring IS for years, told Reuters they foiled at least a dozen major plots this year. A case in point came in December, the month Syria's Bashar Assad was toppled. As rebels were advancing on Damascus, IS commanders holed up near Raqqa, former capital of their self-declared caliphate, dispatched two envoys to Iraq, five Iraqi counter-terrorism officials told Reuters. The envoys carried verbal instructions to the group's followers to launch attacks. But they were captured at a checkpoint while traveling in northern Iraq on December 2, the officials said. Eleven days later, Iraqi security forces, acting on information from the envoys, tracked a suspected IS suicide bomber to a crowded restaurant in the northern town of Daquq using his cell phone, they said. The forces shot the man dead before he could detonate an explosives belt, they said. The foiled attack confirmed Iraq's suspicions about the group, said Colonel Abdul Ameer al-Bayati, of the Iraqi Army's 8th Division, which is deployed in the area. 'Islamic State elements have begun to reactivate after years of lying low, emboldened by the chaos in Syria,' he said. Still, the number of attacks claimed by IS has dropped since Assad's fall. IS claimed responsibility for 38 attacks in Syria in the first five months of 2025, putting it on track for a little over 90 claims this year, according to data from SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militants' activities online. That would be around a third of last year's claims, the data shows. In Iraq, where IS originated, the group claimed four attacks in the first five months of 2025, versus 61 total last year. Syria's government, led by the country's new Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, did not answer questions about IS activities. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Reuters in January the country was developing its intelligence-gathering efforts, and its security services would address any threat. A U.S. defense official and a spokesperson for Iraq's prime minister said IS remnants in Syria and Iraq have been dramatically weakened, unable to control territory since a U.S.-led coalition and its local partners drove them from their last stronghold in 2019. The Iraqi spokesperson, Sabah al-Numan, credited pre-emptive operations for keeping the group in check. The coalition and partners hammered militant hideouts with airstrikes and raids after Assad's fall. Such operations captured or killed 'terrorist elements,' while preventing them from regrouping and carrying out operations, Numan said. Iraq's intelligence operations have also become more precise, through drones and other technology, he added. At its peak between 2014 and 2017, IS held sway over roughly a third of Syria and Iraq, where it imposed its extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law, gaining a reputation for shocking brutality. None of the officials who spoke with Reuters saw a danger of that happening again. But they cautioned against counting the group out, saying it has proven a resilient foe, adept at exploiting a vacuum. Some local and European officials are concerned that foreign fighters might be traveling to Syria to join jihadi groups. For the first time in years, intelligence agencies tracked a small number of suspected foreign fighters coming from Europe to Syria in recent months, two European officials told Reuters, though they could not say whether IS or another group recruited them. EXPLOITING DIVISIONS The IS push comes at a delicate time for Sharaa, as he attempts to unite a diverse country and bring former rebel groups under government control after 13 years of civil war. U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise decision last month to lift sanctions on Syria was widely seen as a win for the Syrian leader, who once led a branch of al Qaeda that battled IS for years. But some Islamist hardliners criticized Sharaa's efforts to woo Western governments, expressing concern he might acquiesce to U.S. demands to expel foreign fighters and normalize relations with Israel. Seizing on such divides, IS condemned the meeting with Trump in a recent issue of its online news publication, al-Naba, and called on foreign fighters in Syria to join its ranks. At a May 14 meeting in Saudi Arabia, Trump asked Sharaa to help prevent an IS resurgence as the U.S. begins a troop consolidation in Syria it says could cut its roughly 2,000-strong military presence by half this year. The U.S. drawdown has heightened concern among allies that IS might find a way to free some 9,000 fighters and their family members, including foreign nationals, held at prisons and camps guarded by the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). There have been at least two attempted jailbreaks since Assad's fall, the SDF has said. Trump and President Tayyip Erdogan of neighboring Turkey want Sharaa's government to assume responsibility for these facilities. Erdogan views the main Kurdish factions as a threat to his country. But some regional analysts question whether Damascus has the manpower needed. Syrian authorities have also been grappling with attacks by suspected Assad loyalists, outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, Israeli airstrikes and clashes between Turkish-backed groups and the SDF, which controls about a quarter of the country. 'The interim government is stretched thin from a security perspective. They just do not have the manpower to consolidate control in the entire country,' said Charles Lister, who heads the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, a U.S. think tank. Responding to a request for comment, a State Department spokesperson said it is critical for countries to repatriate detained nationals from Syria and shoulder a greater share of the burden for the camps' security and running costs. The U.S. defense official said Washington remains committed to preventing an IS resurgence, and its vetted Syrian partners remain in the field. The U.S. will 'vigilantly monitor' Sharaa's government, which has been 'saying and doing the right things' so far, the official added. Three days after Trump's meeting with Sharaa, Syria announced it had raided IS hideouts in the country's second city, Aleppo, killing three militants, detaining four and seizing weapons and uniforms. The U.S. has exchanged intelligence with Damascus in limited cases, another U.S. defense official and two Syrian officials told Reuters. The news agency could not determine whether it did so in the Aleppo raids. The coalition is expected to wrap up operations in Iraq by September. But the second U.S. official said Baghdad privately expressed interest in slowing down the withdrawal of some 2,500 American troops from Iraq when it became apparent that Assad would fall. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the request. The White House, Baghdad and Damascus did not respond to questions about Trump's plans for U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. REACTIVATING SLEEPER CELLS The United Nations estimates IS, also known as ISIS or Daesh, has 1,500 to 3,000 fighters in the two countries. But its most active branches are in Africa, the SITE data shows. The U.S. military believes the group's secretive leader is Abdulqadir Mumin, who heads the Somalia branch, a senior defence official told reporters in April. Still, SITE's director, Rita Katz, cautioned against seeing the drop in IS attacks in Syria as a sign of weakness. 'Far more likely that it has entered a restrategizing phase,' she said. Since Assad's fall, IS has been activating sleeper cells, surveilling potential targets and distributing guns, silencers and explosives, three security sources and three Syrian political officials told Reuters. It has also moved fighters from the Syrian desert, a focus of coalition airstrikes, to cities including Aleppo, Homs and Damascus, according to the security sources. "Of the challenges we face, Daesh is at the top of the list," Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab told state-owned Ekhbariya TV last week. In Iraq, aerial surveillance and intelligence sources on the ground have picked up increased IS activity in the northern Hamrin Mountains, a longtime refuge, and along key roads, Ali al-Saidi, an advisor to Iraqi security forces, told Reuters. Iraqi officials believe IS seized large stockpiles of weapons left behind by Assad's forces and worry some could be smuggled into Iraq. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was in contact with Damascus about IS, which he told Reuters in January was growing and spreading into more areas. "We hope that Syria, in the first place, will be stable, and Syria will not be a place for terrorists," he said, 'especially ISIS terrorists." © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Nikkei Asia
5 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Video of Indian being handcuffed at US airport sparks social media debate
NEW DELHI -- A video of an Indian man being handcuffed and pinned to the floor by law enforcement authorities at a U.S. airport has triggered a debate in social media over President Donald Trump's stringent immigration rules. The footage -- along with several more videos and pictures of the incident -- was shared on X earlier this week by Kunal Jain, who describes himself as an Indo-American social entrepreneur. "I witnessed a young Indian student being deported from Newark Airport last night - handcuffed, crying, treated like a criminal. He came chasing dreams, not causing harm. As an NRI [non-resident Indian], I felt helpless and heartbroken. This is a human tragedy," Jain wrote.
Asahi Shimbun
a day ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Japan deepens ties with Guatemala, a pro-Taiwan ally
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo, left, visits Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at his office in Tokyo on June 10. (Takeshi Iwashita) Japan has officially upgraded its relationship with Guatemala to a 'strategic partnership,' a move aimed at strengthening ties with countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The agreement was formalized on June 10 during a summit in Tokyo between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo. 'As strategic partners, we will work together across various sectors and enhance our cooperation in the international community,' Ishiba said. Arevalo echoed the sentiment, expressing a commitment to further developing bilateral ties in a wide range of fields. The move comes amid increasing Chinese influence in Latin America through expanded trade and economic assistance. Beijing's growing presence has led several countries in the region to sever ties with Taiwan in recent years. Guatemala remains one of 12 nations—seven of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean—that still recognize Taipei diplomatically. In response, Japan has sought to bolster relationships with these countries, particularly those with significant economic and geopolitical weight. Arevalo's visit coincides with his attendance at the Osaka Kansai Expo, presenting a rare opportunity for Japan to enhance diplomacy with Latin America. Last month, a similar strategic partnership upgrade was confirmed with Paraguay during President Santiago Pena's visit to Japan for the expo. Guatemala and Paraguay rank first and second, respectively, in economic output among the 12 pro-Taiwan nations. Together, they account for 82 percent of the group's total gross domestic product and 65 percent of its population. A Foreign Ministry official noted that engaging with these countries is vital to preventing Taiwan's further international isolation. 'Given their economic significance, it's essential to cooperate with Guatemala and Paraguay to maintain Taiwan's presence on the global stage,' the official said.
