Wedding party bus blast kills 30 in Pakistan

A crowded bus carrying a wedding party hit an anti-tank mine yesterday in a volatile region of south-western Pakistan, killing at least 30 people and wounding eight, a doctor and officials said.

Dr Sher Zaman, who tended to the injured, said the dead included 21 children and five women.

Residents said no medical teams reached the victims in the remote, mine-laden area until seven hours after the blast. “I am treating the injured in an open farm field,” Dr Zaman said.

The bus was travelling to a wedding in the town of Rakhni. The bridegroom was among the injured.

District security chief Abdul Samad Lasi blamed a local tribal militant chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, for laying mines in the area, where ethnic Baluch tribesmen often attack security forces, gas plants and pipelines.