Six dead, including four children, in bomb explosion in Pakistan

The blast happened early Friday morning in Mastung in the southwestern province of Balochistan as school buses were transporting children, local police said.

According to police, the bomb was planted on a motorcycle parked near a girls’ school. The target was a police vehicle, but the explosion struck a school bus, a provincial government spokesman said. A police officer and a civilian were also among the dead.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack.

Mastung is a stronghold of Islamist militants from various Sunni groups, such as Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban. Balochistan borders Afghanistan and Iran and is the poorest province in Pakistan.