Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has declared that two major terrorist outfits operating in Pakistan—the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—are acting as agents of India, and Islamabad will soon present concrete evidence of New Delhi’s involvement in the recent school bus bombing in Khuzdar.
Speaking on Geo News program “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath” on Wednesday night, Asif said, “We will expose India’s hand in the Khuzdar school bus attack with irrefutable evidence. BLA’s links with India are no secret—its leadership is hosted in New Delhi and the group functions as an Indian proxy.”
The attack, which occurred a day earlier near Zero Point on the Quetta-Karachi Highway, targeted a school bus carrying students to the Army Public School located in the Khuzdar cantonment. Six people, including four schoolgirls, were martyred, and 38 others were injured—at least a dozen of them critically, including 15 students.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal General Syed Asim Munir visited Quetta to inquire after the injured, as security forces vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice with full force and without mercy.
Referring to last month’s Pulwama-like incident in Indian-occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 people, Asif noted that India had rushed to accuse Pakistan without any proof. “Unlike India’s baseless allegations, we will provide substantiated evidence of Indian sponsorship of terror in our region,” he said.
“BLA and TTP have no connection to religion or nationhood,” he added. “They are being funded by India and are complicit in spreading bloodshed on our soil.”
Responding to questions about Pakistan’s course of action, the Defence Minister made it clear that the country would respond with full might and show no leniency. “Targeting civilians, especially schoolchildren, is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
He further said that Pakistan had demanded an independent investigation into the Pahalgam incident, which India rejected. “The world must realise that the Modi government is behaving recklessly by using fabricated incidents as a pretext for potential nuclear escalation.”
“Pakistan will not initiate a nuclear conflict,” Asif stated. “But if nuclear weapons are used against us, we will not remain silent.”
The Defence Minister emphasised that Pakistan has exercised restraint, but even then, India launched an attack under the cover of darkness. “We want peace, but we will never compromise on the security of our people,” he concluded.
