Karachi University blast: A look at few of most notorious female suicide bombers

Women suicide bombers have been utilised in the past by Boko Haram, ISIS, Palestine-based al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@bashirgwakh and ANI

New Delhi: Tuesday’s suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan that killed three Chinese nationals was claimed by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army. CCTV visuals showed a woman in a burqa blowing herself up near the van carrying the victims, in what the BLA said was the first suicide bombing by a woman for the group. 

The BLA identified the woman as Shari Baloch alias Bramsh, and said her sacrifice marked a “new chapter in Baloch resistance history”. But with this, the BLA joined the select list of terror groups that have used woman suicide bombers – some of the others being Boko Haram, ISIS, Palestine-based al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

In fact, Boko Haram, which controls large swathes of territories in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, uses women for most of their suicide attacks. Those women are viewed as a lesser threat in conflict zones, an element of surprise, hesitancy of security forces to search females and increased publicity for suicide bombings by women have pushed most dreaded terror groups to turn to female suicide bombers. 

Let’s have a look at some of the most notorious suicide bombings by women. 

The first thing that comes to mind is obviously the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. LTTE member Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu blew herself up while she was garlanding Gandhi at a public rally in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. The former PM and 16 others were killed in what was one of the worst suicide bombings by a woman suicide bomber. 

The LTTE had executed numerous suicide attacks against Sri Lankan forces by female suicide bombers. In fact, it had a suicide squad called Black Tigers, comprising mostly women. 

Maiduguri in Nigeria has witnessed repeated suicide bombings by women said to be affiliated with Boko Haram. On June 22, 2015, female suicide bombers struck a fish market, killing 20. On March 16, 2016, two women suicide bombers killed at least 22 worshippers at a mosque during dawn prayers. 

Europe woke up to the horrors of radicalisation when Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert to Islam, blew up a car bomb against a US convoy in Iraq on November 9, 2005. Raised as a Catholic in Belgium, Muriel is said to be Europe’s first suicide bomber. She initially worked in a bakery and moved to Iraq after marrying a Muslim man. 

Puji Kuswati became Indonesia’s first female suicide bomber in May 2018, when she, along with her minor daughters, blew themselves up as part of coordinated attacks in churches in Surabaya. Police suspect, she had returned from Syria prior to the attack and was affiliated with ISIS.