Karachi, March 18 A woman allegedly trained as a suicide bomber by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army has been arrested before she could carry out her mission, a top Pakistani leader said on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told a media conference in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, that the arrest of the young woman from Khuzdar had revealed how the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) was brainwashing young women and children to carry out terrorist attacks.
The alleged suicide bomber woman was also present at the conference, and in a brief address, appealed to students, youth, and children to avoid watching the propaganda and hate material posted by insurgent groups on social media.
She also said that she was being prepared by her handler to carry out the attack sometime after Eid, when security forces arrested her from a town in Khuzdar.
Bugti, flanked by senior security officials, said that security forces and intelligence agencies had been working closely together to implement a policy of preemptive measures, which had saved hundreds of lives in the province.
In the past, there have been at least three confirmed incidents of the BLA using female suicide bombers to carry out major attacks.
The first incident was in April 2022, when Shari Hayat Baloch targeted the Confucius Centre at Karachi University, killing four people, including three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver.
Balochistan, which is rich in minerals and strategically located, has seen several terrorist attacks carried out by banned insurgent groups since 2002.