Suicide Bomber Targets School Bus in Balochistan, Killing 4 Children and Injuring Dozens
A suicide bombing struck an Army Public School bus in Khuzdar, a city in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, on Wednesday morning, killing four children and injuring 38 others. The students were en route to school when their vehicle was targeted near the city center. “This was a deliberate attack on innocent children,” Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Yasir Dasti told The Media Line.
Security forces, including the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, and local police, quickly cordoned off the area. Emergency services transported the injured to nearby medical facilities. “The explosion was so intense that the bus was completely gutted by fire,” Station House Officer Bahawal Khan of Khuzdar City Police Station told The Media Line. Four of the most seriously injured children were taken to the trauma center at Khuzdar Teaching Hospital, while others were moved to the Combined Military Hospital by military personnel.
Though no group has claimed responsibility, suspicion has fallen on the banned Baluch Liberation Army, which is active in the region. Earlier this week, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), another outlawed group, claimed responsibility for an attack on a Levies post near Khuzdar’s Nal area that killed four security personnel. Islamabad has long accused foreign intelligence services—particularly from India—of supporting terrorist organizations in Balochistan in a bid to destabilize the region and disrupt key infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
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The bombing reignites national trauma linked to the 2014 Peshawar massacre, when TTP gunmen stormed the Army Public School and killed 149 people, including 132 children, in one of Pakistan’s deadliest terrorist attacks. That tragedy drew global condemnation and led to sweeping counterterrorism reforms.
In its aftermath, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism-related offenses and created military courts to fast-track cases involving extremist violence. In August 2015, six men convicted of involvement in the Peshawar school massacre were sentenced to death; four of them were executed in December that year. The alleged mastermind, Omar Khorasani, was reportedly killed in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan in August 2022.
Wednesday’s attack is the second major instance in 11 years where children attending Army Public Schools have been targeted by terrorists. Khuzdar, which lies roughly 180 miles from Quetta, the provincial capital, has frequently experienced violence linked to separatist movements and extremist factions.
The government has vowed to continue operations against groups it considers national security threats, but the latest attack raises renewed concerns about the vulnerability of children and civilians. Human rights organizations and education advocates have repeatedly warned that attacks on schools violate international law and can have a generational impact.
As Pakistan continues to face threats from multiple armed groups operating across tribal and urban areas, the government’s ability to prevent such attacks remains under intense scrutiny. The Khuzdar bombing highlights the ongoing danger facing schoolchildren and serves as a grim reminder of the unresolved security challenges in Pakistan’s western provinces.
