GUJRANWALA: The desire to arrange dowry just a few months before marriage prompted a poverty-stricken girl to get valuables from a house by posing herself as a suicide bomber, inviting ire of the people who are already scared of the wave of bombings in the country.

It all happened on Friday last when Ms Sadia, a resident of Kot Ladheywala Warraich, sneaked into a house at Wapda Town and threatened the family to hand over the valuables to her, otherwise, she would explode herself with a bomb which she claimed having possessed.

House owner Zulfiqar, however, caught the girl and handed her over to the Saddar police who immediately called out the bomb disposal squad that revealed that the bottle the girl had used as a weapon had no incendiary device, but was a piece of junk.

The police gleaned during investigation that the eighteen-year-old girl was compelled by circumstances to take the suicidal step.

Sadia’s father Mahmood Bhatti is a rickshaw driver as is her brother Zahid. The family hardly makes both ends meet through the income two of the male members of the family earn.

Saddar police station SHO Riaz Husain told Dawn that Sadia belonged to a very poor family and was the second eldest among seven siblings. She was scheduled to marry after Eidul Fitr, but had no means to arrange dowry.

He said Zulfiqar got registered an FIR against the girl for creating harassment and trying to steal valuables under section 380 and 511 and the Saddar police would have to produce her in court.

He dispelled the impression that she was used as a cat’s paw by some gang. Malik Afzal, who investigated the case, corroborated that the girl had committed the crime under compulsion.