A car bomb that was used for a suicide attack hit a school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Tuesday, killing four children and wounding at least 38 others, said officials quoted by the Associated Press. The attack took place in Khuzdar district when the bus was on its way to drop children at school, said Yasir Iqbal, the deputy commissioner of the area. The explosion did massive damage to the vehicle and created shockwaves throughout the sensitive region.
A bus carrying children from APS School Khuzdar was targeted by a VBIED in Balochistan. At least 5 children reported dead, several injured and shifted to CMH.pic.twitter.com/owwwRf0vsa
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) May 21, 2025
So far, no one has taken responsibility for the attack. But suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatist groups, who have a long history of attacking security personnel as well as civilians in the province. Balochistan has long been an insurgency hotspot, with outfits like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2019, being blamed for similar attacks in the past.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, condemned the attack vehemently, calling it a “sheer act of barbarism.” He expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and called the attackers “beasts” who “merit no mercy.”
Series Of Attacks Raise Concerns
The attack comes on the heels of a series of fatal blasts in Balochistan over the last few weeks. A week ago, another car bombing at Jabbar Market in Qillah Abdullah, close to the Afghan border, killed four individuals and injured a minimum of 20 others. The market is just next to the back wall of a Frontier Corps (FC) fort, where a shootout between assailants and FC soldiers briefly ensued after the blast.
On May 6, seven Pakistani soldiers died when their vehicle was ambushed by an improvised explosive device in the rest of Balochistan. The military blamed the attack on the BLA afterwards.
The return of such violent attacks is proving to be a source of concern for security in the province in anticipation of critical national and regional events. Security personnel are still on guard, and the investigation of Tuesday’s school bus bombing is already in progress.