Pakistan militants force young girl to wear suicide vest

Monday, 20 June 2011

An eight-year-old Pakistani girl was kidnapped by Islamist militants who forced her to wear a suicide vest to attack security forces. (File photo)

By REUTERS
Islamabad

An eight-year-old Pakistani girl was kidnapped by Islamist militants who forced her to wear a suicide vest to attack security forces, police said on Monday.

Police produced the girl, identified as Sohana Javaid, before a news conference broadcast on Pakistani television channels.

The girl recalled how she was kidnapped in her hometown of Peshawar by two women and a man who pulled up in a car.

“They put a handkerchief on my mouth and I fell unconscious. They took me to some place. They gave me some biscuits to eat and I again fell unconscious,” Sohana said in a video, according to a voice-over translation on the tape.

Forced to wear a suicide vest, she was transported to a security check post in a small town in the Lower Dir district in the northwest.

“I moved towards the check post but I started shouting and was taken into custody,” said Sohana.

There was no way to independently verify the story.

Pakistani authorities, who are facing a stubborn Taliban insurgency, have in the past produced would-be suicide bombers in front of television cameras. But they have been men or boys.

The Taliban have been blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan.