Suicide bomber kills five on school bus in Pakistan's Balochistan

Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian- sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice,

the military's media wing said

The blast was so powerful that we heard it from miles away,

said Mansoor Mengal, a local resident

The explosion occurred as the school bus was passing through the area, ... The bodies of the deceased and the injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital.”

said Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior district official, adding

Forty-six students were on board the bus when it was targeted with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device,

Mr. Bugti said during a news conference in the city of Quetta

India rejects the baseless allegations made by Pakistan regarding Indian involvement with the incident in Khuzdar earlier today. India condoles the loss of lives in all such incidents. However, in order to divert attention from its reputation as the global epicenter of terrorism and to hide its own gross failings, it has become second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues. This attempt to hoodwink the world is doomed to fail,

Jaiswal said in a statement

The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,

Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district, told the AFP news agency

The attack on a school bus by terrorists backed by India is clear proof of their hostility toward education in Balochistan."

He said

The bus was on its way to a school in an army cantonment,

said Yasir Iqbal, the administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident took place

A bus carrying children of the (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,

Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, told AFP

Targeting innocent children seeking knowledge is an absolutely unacceptable, inhumane, and barbaric act,

it said in a statement

Indian terror proxies are being employed as a state tool to foment terrorism in Pakistan against soft targets such as innocent children and civilians,

the statement said