3 girls and 2 soldiers killed in Pakistan school bus bombing are buried

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of mourners in Pakistan on Thursday attended the funerals of three schoolgirls and two soldiers killed in a suicide bombing that targeted a school bus.

The girls, aged 10 to 16, were students at the Army Public School in Khuzdar, a city in Balochistan, local authorities said. Another 53 people were wounded, including 39 children, on Wednesday when the bomber drove a car into the school bus in Khuzdar.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest targeting schoolchildren in recent years. The separatist Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, has claimed most of the previous attacks in the southwestern province.

Both the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban typically refrain from taking responsibility for attacks that result in civilian or child casualties.

The BLA has led a long-running separatist insurgency in Balochistan. The U.S. designated the group a terrorist organization in 2019.

Pakistan’s military and government blamed rival India for the attack without offering any evidence. India has not commented. India and Pakistan this month fought a four-day conflict before agreeing to a ceasefire.