Thaindian News

Islamabad, June 22 (IANS) A child being used as a suicide bomber is “an indicator of a tactical shift” of terrorists in Pakistan, a daily said Wednesday after a nine-year-old girl wearing a suicide vest walked up to a checkpost and called for help. She was saved.

An editorial in the News International Wednesday said that nine-year-old Sohana Javed’s tale will be remembered “because it represents a new low, an example of the debauched and perverted thinking that pervades some elements”.

Sohana said she was kidnapped on her way to school and rendered senseless.

She was on Monday “introduced to a new and final role - she was to become a suicide bomber. There was to be no process of indoctrination, no attempt to convince her of the righteousness of an explosive death”.

A suicide vest was strapped on to Sohana and she was told to press the button when she reached the checkpost in Islam Darra in Lower Dir.

The editorial noted that her being alive today is a minor miracle.

“Her kidnappers cared nothing for her innocence; she was merely a means to an end, not a human life…She called for help, and the police took her in and had the bomb disarmed.”

The editorial added: “This is the first time that terrorists have used a child to deliver a bomb.”

“It may be an isolated instance rather than a trend, but if a child is used in a similar manner again then it will be an indicator of a tactical shift, perhaps indicative of difficulties in recruiting older children or perhaps yet another stratagem for ‘getting under the radar’.”

It went on to say that “there is nothing that justifies the sacrifice of a child in this manner”.

“The despicable men and women who did this are bereft of all values and deserve nothing but our contempt, coupled with whatever punishment the law decides for them if they are ever caught and prosecuted - which is highly unlikely,” the daily said.

“The story of Sohana Javed is illustrative of the depths of depravity to which some are prepared to go in their battle against the state. Let us hope she is the last of her kind, although we fear that she may just be the first of many,” it said.