A bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan early Friday morning killed at least seven people, including five schoolchildren, and injured 17 others.
Authorities said that a homemade bomb attached to a motorcycle was detonated in Mustang, a district in the violence-affected Balochistan province, apparently targeting a police patrol near a school.
At least one police officer was among the dead, and several others also suffered injuries.
The provincial government and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in separate statements, condemned the violence as a “terrorist attack.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Balochistan, renowned for its abundant natural resources, where several ethnic Baloch separatist groups routinely target security force members and government installations.
On Tuesday, gunmen attacked workers at the site of a dam in the sparsely populated province’s Panjgur district, killing five and wounding two others. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, claimed responsibility for that attack.
Last month, heavily armed assailants stormed a coal mine in another district and massacred 21 coal workers.
BLA, listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States, and other allied insurgent groups claim to be fighting for Balochistan’s independence.
They have also targeted China-funded projects in the province and Chinese nationals working on them, alleging Beijing is assisting Islamabad in exploiting the region’s resources. Both countries reject the charges and label insurgents as enemies of the development in impoverished Balochistan.
