ISLAMABAD: An eight-year-old Pakistani girl was kidnapped by 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.
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