Govt places ban on head-to-toe hijab to check suicide bombers

dimeji akinloye

June 18, 2015 6:04 PM

Government has met religious leaders to discuss the measures and all the hijab for sale in the markets will be withdrawn.

Arab women clad in head-to-toe Burqas, popularly known as Hijab.

Prime Ministerof Chad, Kalzeube Deubet, has announced the ban of head-to-toe hijab and religious turbans.

He made the announcement on Thursday, June 18, in N’djamena, Chadian capital, stating that the decision is as a result of the two simultaneous suicide bombings that rocked the country on Monday, June 15.

The bombings were carried out by Boko Haram terrorists.

Deubet said that government, in a meeting with religious leaders on Wednesday, discussed the measures of the ban, which includes withdrawing all the hijabs currently selling in the markets.

Meanwhile, Chadian Minister for Interior, Abderahim Hamid, said the country has made progress with the arrest of five suspects connected with the two simultaneous suicide bombings on Monday.

He said that the two attacks were the first of their kind in Chad and appeared to be retaliation by Boko Haram for Chad's leading role in an offensive against the militants.

Hamid said that more than 100 people were injured in the attacks on a central police station and a police school in the capital.

N’djamena serves as a command center for a regional anti-Boko Haram taskforce, made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin as well as for France's 3,000-strong Barkhane mission fighting militancy in the region.

Chad neighbouring Niger confirmed that its security forces arrested a dozen suspected members of a Boko Haram cell that killed a civilian and kidnapped two youths during an attack on a village in the south eastern region of Diffa this week.

dimeji akinloye