Kidnap victim, 9, forced to wear suicide vest

The girl and police said she managed to escape her captors as they directed her to attack a paramilitary checkpoint in northwest Pakistan.

Officers presented Sohana Jawed, dressed in a blue-and-white school uniform, at a news conference in Lower Dir district. Militants in Pakistan have often used young boys to carry out attacks, but the use of young girls is rare.

Sohana, who is in the equivalent of primary five, was on her way to school in the northwest city of Peshawar on Saturday when she was grabbed by two women and forced into a car carrying two men, she said during the news conference.

Police in Peshawar said they are still trying to confirm her story.

One of the kidnappers put a handkerchief on her mouth that knocked her unconscious, Sohana said in an interview with a television station.

When she woke up and started crying, one of the women gave her cookies laced with something that again knocked her out, Sohana said. The next time she woke up, she found herself in a strange home, she said.

"This morning, the women and men forced me to put on the heavy jacket and put me in the car again," Sohana said.

The suicide vest contained nearly 20lbs of explosives and seemed to be designed to be set off remotely, Lower Dir police chief Salim Marwat said.

"Most likely it had to be detonated through a remote control since a minor was wearing it," he said.

The kidnappers took her to a checkpoint run by the paramilitary Frontier Corps located about six miles outside Timergarah, the main town in Lower Dir district. When they got out of the car, she sprinted toward the paramilitary soldiers to show them what she was wearing, said Mr Marwat.

"I got the chance to release my hand from the woman and run," said Sohana.

By the time the paramilitary soldiers realised what was happening, the kidnappers had escaped, said Mr Marwat. Police have launched a search operation to find them, he added.

It is unclear why the kidnappers did not detonate the suicide bomb vest after Sohana ran away. Mr Marwat suggested they may have simply panicked and fled.

Asif Khan, the police chief in the area of Peshawar where Sohana said she lived and was kidnapped, Hashtnagri, said they have not received a complaint of a missing girl and have not identified a resident with her name.

Police in Lower Dir plan to ask the child additional questions after she is examined by a psychiatrist, who is helping her cope with the trauma of her ordeal.

Sohana's ordeal emerged as suspected US drones fired missiles at a vehicle and a house in the northwest of the country, killing 12 people in a rare attack in an area where some of Nato's fiercest enemies have reportedly travelled, Pakistani officials said.The first attack in the Kurram tribal area hit a vehicle, killing five people, said Noor Alam, a local government official. As tribesmen rushed to the scene, the vehicle was again struck, killing two more people, he said. Minutes later, a suspected US drone attacked a nearby house, killing five people, the official said.

Seven of the 12 people killed in the attacks were Afghan militants whose bodies were taken across the border to be buried.

The attacks were confirmed by two Pakistani intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The Obama administration has dramatically stepped up covert CIA drone attacks against militants in Pakistan, but there have only been a handful of strikes in the Kurram tribal area.

Yesterday's strikes could indicate an expansion of the programme.

Most of the recent drone strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, an important sanctuary for the Haqqani network, which US military officials have said is the most dangerous militant group battling foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The US has repeatedly asked Pakistan to launch an offensive against the network in North Waziristan, but the military has said that its forces are stretched too thin by other operations in the tribal areas.