• Says Baloch women being trapped for ‘terrorism’
• Suggests youth inform parents if they are ever approached by anti-state elements

QUETTA: “I was misled and brainwashed by terrorists in such a way that I became ready to carry out a suicide attack and did not even think of how many innocent people would lose their lives,” Adeela Baloch, a would-be suicide bomber, clai­m­­­ed before the media on Wed­nesday after she was arrested in a security operation in Turbat.

Accompanied by her parents, Adeela told a press conference that she was being trained to become a suicide bomber when the law enforcement agencies took her into custody during an operation in the Turbat town of Kech district a few days ago.

She said she was a qualified nurse, running a WHO project at the Turbat Teaching Hospital. The nurse said her real job was to help people and save precious lives, but she was brainwashed and misled by terrorists to become a mass murderer.

“Terrorists were blackmailing and misleading Baloch women to trap them for committing terrorism in the province,” she said.

“Anti-state elements are misleading the youth and luring them into joining terrorist groups under false promises. They showed me false hopes of a new and happy life,” she explained, adding that once she joined them, she realised that life in the mountains was nothing but difficult and hardship.

She said she went “to the mountains to join the terrorist group without telling my family. They tempted me with a better and happy life but very soon I realised that they deceived me.”

She also claimed that “the narrative of Baloch women willingly becoming suicide bombers was untrue. Terrorists blackmail women into this of which I am a victim too”.

Her father told those present that he got the information about “disappearance of my daughter on Sept 19, and immediately I approached the government and sought help for her recovery.” He said one could understand how much worried he was after knowing that his daughter went missing.

He said that he was thankful to the provincial government and security forces who saved the life of his daughter.

At the presser, Adeela Baloch urged Baloch youths not to make the same mistake she did. “These actions only lead to destruction. You gain nothing from these activities,” she said, advising young people to inform their parents if they ever encounter such individuals who attempted to lure them in.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2024