Detained Pakistani student was to be used as suicide bomber

Islamabad - She left her house to go to Lahore on her own

A 20-year-old medical student, who visited Syria in February to join the Daesh and receive weapons training, has said that she was to be used as a suicide bomber to attack a church on Easter in Pakistan's Lahore city.
Naureen Leghari, a second-year student of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Jamshoro, Sindh, said she left her house to go to Lahore on her own.
In a video confession played during a press conference by Pakistan's Military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor here, Naureen said that she was to be used by the Daesh as a suicide bomber on an attack to be conducted on a church on Easter Sunday.
The woman said they were given two suicide jackets, four grenade and some bullets by the Daesh to carry out the mission.
However, their mission was foiled by the security forces who killed one militant and arrested two others, including the woman, on Friday night.
The woman had visited Syria to join the Daesh terror group in February, the Dawn reported, citing sources.
She had also received training in Syria for using weapons, the sources added.
Naureen came to Lahore about three weeks ago and was being tracked by security personnel. She had reportedly been contacted by militants through social media, the paper said.
Her husband Ali Tariq of Lahore, whom she had married after leaving her home and joining the militants, was killed in the encounter in the Punjab Housing Society on Friday night. Four security personnel were injured in the shootout.
Security personnel found her college card and her father's computerised national identity card from their hideout and reportedly contacted her family in Hyderabad.
She was being interrogated about the modus operandi of the militant network and other people associated with it.
Meanwhile, the University Vice Chancellor Naushad Sheikh said the woman was in prolonged contact with a man on social media who radicalised her.
A committee was formed by the university to investigate Naureen, the paper said.
"She Naureen was in contact with a boy on social media for quite some time," the vice chancellor said.
"Her contact with the boy transformed her mindset and influenced her towards extremism," he added.
The vice chancellor said that Naureen was a "reserved girl" who used to "pray five times a day."
Sheikh added that two of Naureen's friends were Hindus.
An official said said that after reaching Lahore on February 10, Naureen had messaged her brother through a friend's Facebook profile that she has reached the land of Khilafah (caliphate).
"Brother, I am Naureen, I hope you all are fine, I am fine and happy too, I have contacted you to inform you that by the grace of God, I have migrated to the land of Khilafah (caliphate) and hope that you all will someday migrate (to this land)," the official read the message of Naureen to her brother.
Prof Abdul Jabbar, father of Naureen, had filed a missing reported of his daughter on February 10.
A source in Lahore police said she was connected with the Daesh men on Facebook where she took allegiance to the Daesh chief.
Facebook had blocked her account because of her extremist views.
 

• Pakistan