Burqa-clad Turkish 'suicide bomber' turns out to be lover in disguise

Locals alerted police of a 'would-be suicide bomber' on Saturday after noticing that a burqa-clad 'woman' talking at a bus stop was wearing men’s shoes.

Istanbul // A Turkish man detained as a suspected would-be suicide bomber in northern Turkey was actually wearing a burqa to disguise himself to meet a secret lover from a dating site, local media reported on Sunday.

Locals in the Black Sea province of Ordu alerted police of a “would-be suicide bomber” on Saturday after noticing that a burqa-clad “woman” talking on the phone at a bus stop was wearing men’s shoes, Dogan news agency said.

A police team arrived at the scene and “unmasked” the man, who was dressed in a full-length, black robe for women with a niqab covering his face. Authorities detained him for “inflicting fear and panic in the public”, Dogan reported.

The 33-year-old man, who is married with two children, told police that he had resorted to the burqa disguise in order to secretly meet a woman he had met on an online dating site for the first time.

Turkey is on high alert after a series of deadly attacks blamed on the ISIL militant group, including a massive twin suicide bombing at a peace rally in Ankara on October 10 that killed 102 people in the worst-ever terror attack in Turkey’s history.

* Agence France-Presse