Roadside blast kills 7, five of them schoolchildren, in Pakistan – Times of India

ISLAMABAD: At least seven people, including five schoolchildren and a police constable, were killed and more than 20 others injured in a roadside bomb explosion in Mastung district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Friday.
State-run PTV news quoted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as saying that the explosion had occurred at a “girls’ high school”, while another post by the outlet said the incident occurred “near girls’ high school chowk”.
Naeem Bazai, commissioner for Kalat division, said the attack had occurred near Mastung’s civil hospital, a few metres from the girls’ school.
Officials said the blast resulted from an improvised explosive device (IED) fitted inside a motorcycle parked outside a mechanic’s shop. “The IED exploded when a police mobile and a school van were crossing the blast site,” said Mastung district deputy commissioner Baz Muhammad Marri.
“Seven people, including a cop and five minor children, were killed and 22 others injured in the explosion,” Marri told the media. “We are ascertaining who was actually targeted because a police mobile and a school van were both passing by the area,” he added.
Sarfaraz Bugti, Balochistan’s chief minister, condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of lives. “The terrorists have targeted innocent children. We will hold accountable, the perpetrators of the blast,” he said in a statement.
Waseem Baig, a spokesman for the Balochistan health department, said 11 injured, including two children, had been shifted to a trauma centre in Quetta, the provincial capital. “Three injured are in critical condition,” he added.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, has been facing grave security conditions since the country launched a military offensive there in 2006, vowing to wipe out so-called traitors and terrorists.
At least 20 labourers were killed in a rocket attack in October on coal mines in the province’s Duki district. The incident had prompted more than 40,000 other labourers to return to their native areas in Punjab and Sindh. Several workers were killed in Sept when armed men stormed an under-construction house in Panjgur. All slain labourers hailed from Multan, Punjab province.
The volatile situation in Balochistan has also been a major challenge for Beijing to complete projects linked to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese nationals, mostly working on CPEC projects, are often targeted by militants in the province.