A roadside bomb targeting a van that was transporting the police guarding polio vaccination teams killed four children and a police officer in Pakistan's restive Balochistan Province.
Police official Miadad Omrani, told RFE/RL that the explosion occurred near a girls' school in the city of Mastung as a motorized rickshaw that transports children to school was passing by.
Omrani said three police officers were wounded in the blast, which appears to have been triggered by remote control.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Balochistan's chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, both condemned the attack and vowed to rid the country of militants.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The mineral-rich southern province has been marred by a spate of deadly attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.
Baluch separatist groups, such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States, are engaged in fighting against the Pakistani government.
On October 29, armed men attacked a construction site in Balochistan's Panjgur area, killing five builders who were working on a dam near the border with Iran. The BLA claimed responsibility for the attack.
On October 24, four people were wounded in a blast in the region's Kala Saifullah area.
On October 11, 20 coal miners were killed in the Duki district in an attack that also went unclaimed by any group.
Baluch separatists have been active in Pakistan's Balochistan for years and they demand the province's independence and what they say would be a fair share of the region's mineral revenues.
Pakistani Army and paramilitary forces have been stationed in Balochistan for almost two decades and have continued to carry out operations against armed groups there.
The separatists have claimed responsibility for attacks on Pakistani security forces, government officials, and on Chinese workers who are in Pakistan working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
China is conducting numerous projects in Pakistan under the umbrella of the CPEC.
The $60 billion initiative encompasses a wide range of development and infrastructure projects.