At least seven people, including five schoolchildren, were killed and 23 others injured in an explosion in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, a police official said.
“The target was a police van that was going to pick up a polio vaccination team,” Rehmatullah, senior superintendent of police, told Reuters. A police officer was among the dead, while 23 other people and officers were injured.
The explosion was caused by an improvised device attached to a motorcycle parked near a girls' school in the town of Mastung.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement.
Pakistan is facing a surge in militant attacks in the country's northwest and a growing separatist insurgency in the south. On Tuesday, a police officer was killed in an attack on a health office that runs door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns.
The attacks coincided with the third national polio vaccination campaign, launched on Monday, as the number of cases of the viral disease increased significantly. Although the number of cases fell to six in 2023 from 20 in 2022, the Prime Minister's Office says there are currently 41 active cases in Pakistan.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where polio is endemic. Islamist militants have previously targeted polio teams, spreading false conspiracy theories that vaccinations are part of a Western sterilization program.
