Two children killed in bomb blast in southwest Pakistan, police say | News

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says perpetrators of attack ‘should be identified and given exemplary punishment’.

A bomb blast near a police office in southwestern Pakistan has killed at least two children and injured 16 people, authorities have said.

Seven policemen were among those wounded when the remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle detonated in Pishin district on Saturday, a local law enforcement official told the Reuters news agency.

“Explosives were planted in a motorcycle, which was parked in the area,” police officer Mujeeb-Ur-Rehman said, adding that the two children were passing through the area when the blast occurred.

Provincial government spokesman Shahid Rind said that “terrorists are targeting innocent and sinless people to achieve their nefarious goals”, according to Pakistan daily Dawn News.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and Bomb Disposal Squad have been deployed to the region where the attack took place, Dawn News reported.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed “deep grief and sorrow” for the victims of the attack.

“Those responsible for the incident should be identified and given exemplary punishment,” he said in a statement.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks by armed groups in recent years.

On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on a school van in Punjab, killing two children and wounding six people, police said.

In February, two bomb blasts, including one in Pishin, killed 28 people ahead of the elections in Pakistan. The ISIL (ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Pakistan’s government has struggled for decades to subdue armed groups that operate in a number of provinces throughout the country. Some are criminal organisations while others, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistan Taliban, aim to depose the government.