Pakistani Authorities Discover House Full Of Would Be Female Suicide Bombers

Paramilitary soldiers survey the site of suicide bombing in Khar, the main town of Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region,Dec 25, 2010. — AP/File


You know, the title of this story from DAWN talks about Pakistani security officials arresting a "would be" female suicide bomber but then as you read along, it describes a second woman found wearing a vest and then FIVE others in the house and most of those were arrested - sounds like a whole cell got nabbed to me.

The significance of this is that this was in Bajaur which saw a woman suicide bomber blow herself up about 2 months ago and that attack killed 43 people.

From the story:

Authorities on Wednesday arrested a woman allegedly planning to blow herself up in the Bajaur tribal region where 43 people were killed two months ago in a female suicide attack, officials said.

“Security forces and local administration officials raided a house near Khar on Wednesday morning and arrested a woman wearing a suicide vest,” senior local official Sohail Khan told AFP.

He said the raid was ordered on a tip off that women were being trained as suicide bombers in the residential area of Siddiquabad near Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district.

He said five other people were also arrested, including two other women from the same house.

Now, as you can see from the story, that suicide bombing 2 months ago by a woman was the first reported by a female in Pakistan but what the Pakistanis have to come to term with is that al Qaeda has influenced jihadis all over the northwest provinces and agencies and I'd say it is safe to assume that there are female cells like this in several locations.

If we remember from Iraq, al Qaeda seized upon women who were widows of fallen jihadis - they preyed on their anger and grief and were able to convince them this was a way for them to glorify and join their husbands.

Authorities arrests woman ‘would-be suicide bomber’ in Bajaur


KHAR: Authorities on Wednesday arrested a woman allegedly planning to blow herself up in the Bajaur tribal region where 43 people were killed two months ago in a female suicide attack, officials said.

“Security forces and local administration officials raided a house near Khar on Wednesday morning and arrested a woman wearing a suicide vest,” senior local official Sohail Khan told AFP.

He said the raid was ordered on a tip off that women were being trained as suicide bombers in the residential area of Siddiquabad near Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district.

He said five other people were also arrested, including two other women from the same house.

“All six people are being interrogated,” he added, giving no details.

Two local intelligence officials confirmed the raid and arrests.

In Pakistan’s first known female suicide attack, a woman wearing a bomb under her burqa struck near a UN food distribution point on December 25.

Security forces have carried out a series of military operations against the Taliban and other militants in Bajaur since August 2008.

The military has claimed repeatedly to have eliminated the militant threat.

Bajaur is one of seven districts in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, which the United States considers the global headquarters of al Qaeda.