At least eight people, including five schoolchildren and a policeman, were killed Friday in a remote-controlled blast targeting a police van in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province, officials said. The explosion injured 29 others.
The blast took place around 8.35 am near a girls’ high school at Civil Hospital Chowk in Mastung district, as children were making their way to school. Officials confirmed terrorists used a remote device to detonate explosives hidden in a parked motorbike.
“It was an IED (improvised explosive device) used in the blast, and the target apparently was a police mobile parked near the school,” Kalat Division Commissioner Naeem Bazai said, PTI reported.
The explosion struck as a police vehicle neared the device, hitting a school van and damaging several rickshaws and other vehicles nearby. “The blast was so powerful that schoolchildren who were going to the school at that time were hit by the explosion,” Bazai added.
According to Dr. Wasim Baig, a provincial health department spokesman, “One person admitted to the trauma centre has also passed away, while reports from different hospitals suggest that a total of 29 people sustained injuries in the blast.”
Mastung District Police Officer Miandad Umrani confirmed the fatalities, noting five children, one police officer, and a civilian were killed. Injured victims, including children aged 8 to 13, were taken to various hospitals, with those severely wounded transported to the provincial capital, Quetta.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but ethnic Baloch and Taliban militants frequently target security forces in Balochistan, which has endured a low-level insurgency for over two decades.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the attack in a post on X, terming it “inhumane” and vowing retaliation. “We will avenge the murder of innocent children and people,” he said, urging civilians in urban areas to stay vigilant.
In response, Quetta hospitals declared an emergency, with all doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other medical staff called in to handle the influx of casualties.