The death toll from the Khuzdar bus blast has climbed to eight, with two more female students succumbing to their injuries in a hospital on Sunday. According to security sources, the students — Shema Ibrahim and Muskan — passed away after fighting for their lives for nearly four days. The latest update confirms that the victims of this terrorist attack include seven female students and one male student.
On May 21st, a suicide attack on a school bus near Zero Point in Khuzdar, on the Quetta-Karachi highway, resulted in the immediate deaths of at least five people, including three female students, and injuries to 43 others. The bus was en route to drop students at the Army Public School in Khuzdar Cantonment. Hours after the school bus explosion, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir expressed their resolve that the time has come for Pakistan to demonstrate unwavering national determination, akin to that shown against Indian aggression, to eliminate foreign-sponsored terrorism and bring this fight to a decisive conclusion. “Pakistan’s security forces and law enforcement agencies will relentlessly pursue all those involved in this barbaric act,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in an official statement during his day-long visit to Quetta to review the law-and-order situation following the terror attack. The Prime Minister and the army chief also visited Quetta to meet the victims of the terrorist attack.
The government stated that Indian-backed militants carried out the attack, which occurred almost two weeks after the two sides had settled a ceasefire to end their most serious conflict in decades. According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the school bus, carrying innocent children, was targeted by “Indian-sponsored proxies [Fitna Al Hindustan] which the world has largely come to know as the epicenter of instability in the region.” It added, “The architects, abettors, and enablers of this crime will be held accountable and brought to justice, and the truth about India’s cunning role, a real perpetrator of terrorism but feigning as a victim, stands exposed before the world.”
Military Leadership Vows Decisive Action Against Terrorism: Key Takeaways from Corps Commanders’ Conference
Later on Friday, the army leadership reiterated that all Indian proxies and facilitators of terrorism would be thoroughly dismantled and decimated with the full force of national will and institutional strength. Reaffirming Pakistan’s strategic stance, the forum declared that no entity could coerce Pakistan through the use or threat of force, and the nation would undertake all necessary measures to safeguard its vital interests. Field Marshal Asim Munir chaired the 270th Corps Commanders’ Conference, which extensively deliberated on the threat posed by India-backed terrorist proxies operating in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It was observed that following its military setback in the wake of the Pahalgam incident, India, a self-proclaimed victim of terrorism but in reality a perpetrator of terrorism and an epicenter of regional instability, has escalated its use of covert means, employing non-state actors to pursue its destabilization agenda. The forum unequivocally resolved that Pakistan would never allow its peace to be compromised by externally sponsored terrorism. The top military brass affirmed that the Pakistan Armed Forces, in close synergy with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, will pursue all proxies and facilitators of terrorism with unwavering resolve. “These hostile elements, trained and financed to incite chaos and fear, will be dismantled and decimated with full force of national will and institutional strength, InshaAllah,” it reaffirmed.
