Police detain 9-year-old girl with suicide vest By Manzoor Ali June 21, 2011 PESHAWAR: In a shocking affront

to child dignity across the country, a nine-year -old girl was kidnapped on her way to school some days ago and forced to wear a suicide vest by her captors on Monday. The girl, Sohana Javed, was then instructed to attack a police checkpoint in Low er Dir, police officials said. But providence seemed to intervene, helping the g irl to give her captors the slip on Monday. This is the first time that militant s have used a young girl to carry an explosives belt in any attempted act of ter ror, sparking fears that terror groups may have switched tactics. Police said the girl was arrested about 50 metres from the check post in Islam D arra on the outskirts of Timergara, the main town in the district of Lower Dir. Sohana, dressed in a blue and white school uniform, recounted her ordeal during a news conference with police. She told reporters that she had been grabbed by t wo women and forced into a car carrying two men. Police in Peshawar said they ar e still trying to confirm her story. One of the kidnappers put a handkerchief on her mouth that knocked her unconscio us, she said in an interview with a local TV station. When she woke up and start ed crying, one of the women fed her biscuits laced with an intoxicant which agai n knocked her out. The next time she woke up she found herself in a strange home , she said. This morning, the women and men forced me to put on the heavy jacket and put me i n the car again, the girl said. They put one suicide vest on me, but it did not fit. Then they put on annother on e, Sohana said. I threw away the vest and started shouting (for help) as I came cl ose to the check post and they (security forces) took me into custody. They kept me in a house and they told me to push the button (to detonate the suic ide vest) when I reach near policemen, she told reporters. District Police Officer Saleem Marwat told reporters that Sohana was a resident of Hashtnagri area in Peshawar and that she had told the police that she attende d school on Sunday. A local source, however, told The Express Tribune that Sohana seemed to be from t he Malakand division, not Peshawar, and was a rural type of child, not an urban one. Her accent shows that she is from Malakand, not Peshawar, the source said. Anoth er source of confusion was pointed out. Even though the girl mentioned two suici de vests, only one was actually recovered from the site. She was wearing eight kilograms of explosives which was quite heavy for her age. Her (actions) were suspicious, Qazi Jamilur Rehman, the regional police chief, to ld AFP by telephone. She is an innocent (little) schoolgirl who was scared. She is with us (now) and w e are trying to contact her family, Rehman added. The police said they were trying to locate the militants who had abducted her an d put her to this task. The official said that the kidnappers also changed her p rivate school uniform with a government school one. Sohana told reporters that s he was a student of a private school for which her parents paid a monthly fee of Rs500. She identified her father as Javed and said that she had an elder brothe r, Imran, who is a 9th grade student. Suicide attacks by women and children are rare, but militant groups have frequen tly used teenage boys. On December 26, 2010, a burqa-clad female suicide bomber struck a UN food distri bution point and killed 43 people in Khar, the main town in the restive Bajaur t ribal region bordering Afghanistan. Nearly 4,500 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliba n and other extremist outfits. With additional input from news wires http://tribune.com.pk/story/192647/suicide-bomber-surrenders-herself-to-security -officials