QUETTA, Pakistan: A bomb attack killed at least four Pakistani soldiers and wounded six others on Wednesday, targeting an army vehicle that was escorting school children in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.
The attack came one day before Pakistan welcomes Muslim leaders at the Developing Eight summit in the capital Islamabad, which rarely hosts international conferences due to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence plaguing the country.
"Four soldiers were killed and six wounded. The target was an army vehicle which was escorting a school bus carrying children of local army officers from different schools," Quetta city police chief Hamid Shakeel told AFP.
He said the bomb had been planted on a motorbike and was detonated by remote control, indicating that the toll could rise further.
"There are also civilian casualties but I can't give details immediately because the area has been cordoned off by army troops," he said.
"It was a remote controlled bomb. The device was planted on a motorbike. It exploded soon after the army vehicle came there," Shakeel said.
Quetta is more than 400 miles (640 kilometres) southwest of Islamabad, where Pakistan has stepped up security significantly for the summit, not least because it coincides with the holy month of Muharram, a magnet for sectarian attacks.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to be among those attending the D8 summit, likely to be overshadowed by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Quetta and its province Baluchistan are frequently hit by bomb attacks.
The oil and gas rich area borders Iran and Afghanistan, and suffers from sectarian violence, attacks by Taliban militants and a tribal insurgency. (AFP)
