Bomb targeting police assigned for polio drive kills 9 people, including 5 children, in SW Pakistan

Associated Press

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle has exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to protect polio workers in restive southwest Pakistan, killing nine  people including five nearby children. A police official says the attack occurred Friday in Mastung in Balochistan province. He says a motorized rickshaw carrying schoolchildren was nearby when the bombing happened, resulting in the deaths of five children, a police officer and two passersby. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups that have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.