ISLAMABAD – A woman covered in a head-to-foot burqa carried out a suicide bombing that killed more than 40 people in Pakistan, government officials said on Sunday, adding to security challenges.
Any increased use of women as bombers may complicate efforts by Pakistani security forces to stem a spreading wave of Islamist suicide attacks because it is harder to spot and search burqa-clad attackers in conservative tribal society.
Saturday’s bombing illustrated the resilient ability of militants to stage attacks despite army offensives against them. The woman blew herself amid a crowd of men, women and children heading towards a food distribution centre of the World Food Programme in the Bajaur region.
“Initially there was confusion as to whether the attacker was a man or woman but now we have established that (it) was a woman,” senior government official Sohail Ahmed told Reuters. Government officials in Bajaur said they had recovered the head, burqa and clothes of the bomber.
Previous Woman Bomber In 2007: It was the second such attack by a female militant in Pakistan. In the first episode, a woman detonated explosives near a military checkpost in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2007, but she killed no one except herself. On Saturday, the woman initially threw hand grenades at people heading towards the food centre to receive aid before blowing herself up.
Forty-three people were killed and more than 60 were wounded in the attack. “If militants use more women for such attacks then it is going to be a very huge problem for the security forces,” said Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on tribal and militant affairs.
“They don’t have enough women (in the) police force and even (if) they have policewomen, because of our conservative culture, people don’t want their women to be subjected to body searches. It’s going to be a big problem.” The attack happened a day after battles between security forces and insurgents in the neighbouring Mohmand region that killed 11 soldiers and 40 insurgents, the government said. Militants disputed the official death toll.
