New Delhi has rebutted Islamabads allegations that it was involved in a terrorist attack in Balochistan

India has rejected allegations by Pakistan that it was involved in a suicide bomb blast in Balochistan province which reportedly killed five people, including three children.

New Delhi called the claims "baseless," describing them as an attempt to divert attention from Pakistan's own reputation as a hub of terrorism.

"India rejects the baseless allegations made by Pakistan regarding Indian involvement with the incident in Khuzdar earlier today," Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswa said. "India condoles the loss of lives in all such incidents. However, in order to divert attention from its reputation as the global epicenter of terrorism and to hide its own gross failings, it has become second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues."

A bus carrying studentswas targetedin a blast in Balochistan's Khuzdar district on Wednesday morning, leaving three children among five dead, while several others were injured, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

The ISPR alleged that India is utilizing proxy groups as a means to instigate terrorism in Pakistan. "Having failed in the Operation Bunnianum Marsoos and being hunted by military and law enforcement agencies, these Indian terror proxies are being employed as a state tool by India to foment terrorism in Pakistan against soft targets such as innocent children and civilians," the statement said.

The ISPR was referring to the military operation it launched against India earlier this month in response toIndia's Operation Sindoor, which included targeting what New Delhi called "terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed."

The incident in Khuzdar is the latest in a series of events that have strained relations between India and Pakistan. The South Asian neighbors engaged in major hostilities after India launched strikes on suspected terrorist facilities in Pakistan-controlled territory on May 7, in response to a terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. After four days of intense fighting, New Delhi and Islamabad agree to a ceasefire.

India has long maintained that Pakistan harbors and supports terrorist groups, and has called on the international community to take action. Pakistan has denied the allegations and has instead accused India of supporting terrorist and separatists movements inside its territory, including in Balochistan.

The province, bordered by Iran to the west, Afghanistan to the northwest, and the Arabian Sea to the south, has seen decades of violence, including several insurgencies, ever since Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain in 1947.

In March, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) seized the Jaffar Express, a passenger train in Pakistan's Balochistan province, on Tuesday, taking over 400 passengers hostage. Officials in Islamabad have suggested that the handlers of the attack were linked to Afghanistan while simultaneously blaming India for "sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan" a claim New Delhirejected.

(RT.com)