Pakistan: Woman suicide bomber misses target

The first confirmed woman suicide bomber in Pakistan blew herself up without harming anyone else, officials said today.

The woman tried to attack a military post near a Christian school in the north-western city of Peshawar.

Police said the woman was walking near a Christian missionary school and a military checkpoint when explosives strapped to her body went off, killing her instantly. There were no other casualties.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said the bomber, wearing a burqa, the all-covering traditional dress, tried to approach the military post but was stopped by troops and then blew herself up.

“I think this has been the first suicide bombing by a woman,” he said.

Peshawar police chief Tanveerul Haq Sipra told reporters at the scene that an initial examination of the woman’s remains indicated she may have been in her 30s.

Dozens of police and soldiers sealed off the area, which was splattered with blood and body parts.

Pakistan has been hit by a rash of suicide bombings in recent months, but this is the first known case in of a woman carrying out a suicide attack.

In October, authorities initially said a suicide attack that killed 14 other people in Bannu was carried out by a woman. They later reported the bomber was a man wearing a burqa.

On November 24, two suicide bombers hit a bus carrying intelligence agency employees and a checkpoint near the headquarters of Pakistan’s army, killing at least 16 people.