At least six people, including four school children, were killed when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle exploded in the volatile southwestern Pakistani province on Friday.
A local police officer, Ali Ahmed, told journalists the attack in the town of Mastung near the provincial headquarters of Quetta city, occurred early in the morning on Friday when school vans were carrying children to classrooms.
Ahmed said a police officer and a civilian were among the dead.
He said at least 16 people, the majority of them children, were wounded by the bomb that was planted on a motorbike parked near a girls’ school.
“The primary target was the police patrol vehicle, but a school van was hit by the bomb,” said Shahid Rind, spokesman for the provincial government.
In a statement issued by his office, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the attack and ordered the arrest of the terrorists behind it.