Suicide car bomber strikes a school bus in southwestern Pakistan, killing 4 children, officials say

A suicide car bomber struck a school bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least four children and wounding 38 others, a government official, the latest attack in tense Balochistan province.

Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.

A local deputy commissioner, Yasir Iqbal, said the attack took place in the district of Khuzdar as the bus was transporting children to a military-run school in the city.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in the region.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep sorrow over the children's deaths. He called the perpetrators "beasts" who deserve no leniency, saying the enemy had committed an act of "sheer barbarism by targeting innocent children."

Officials said they fear that the death toll may rise further as several children are listed in critical condition.

The latest attack came days after a car bombing killed four people near a market in Qillah Abdullah, a city in Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan.

Most of such attacks are claimed by BLA, which Pakistan says enjoyed the backing of neighboring India.

In one of the deadliest such attacks in March, BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, during an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan.