"Wearing the burqa must stop
immediately from today, not only in public places and schools but
throughout the whole of the country," Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi
Deubet said in a speech to religious leaders the day before the start of
the holy Muslim festival of Ramadan.
Any
type of clothing that leaves only the eyes visible is a form of
"camouflage" and is now banned, he added, asking the religious leaders
to spread the message in their mosques, churches and holy places.
Prime
Minister Deubet said instructions had been given to security forces to
"go into the markets and to seize all the burqas on sale and burn them".Anyone found wearing a burqa would be "arrested, tried and sentenced in summary proceedings", he added.
Monday's
bombings, the first such attacks in the capital of Muslim-majority
Chad, have been blamed on Boko Haram jihadists who have previously
carried out bloody assaults on villages along the border with Nigeria.
The Islamist militants have used female suicide bombers to
launch attacks in the past by hiding explosive devices under their
clothes.
Chad's government on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning for the 33 people killed and more than 100 others wounded in the blasts.
President Idriss Deby said he was "not surprised" the country has been targetted because of the leading role its army is playing in a regional offensive against Boko Haram fighters operating out of northeastern Nigeria.
- 'Don't drop your guard' -
"I
have continually told the government to not drop its guard," he said,
urging the international community to back the states in their struggle.
Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon agreed last week to
set up a regional task force of 8,700 soldiers, police officers and
civilians, based in N'Djamena.
Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau had threatened several times to attack Chad and other countries that joined forces against the militants, whose bloody six-year insurgency is increasingly spilling across Nigeria's borders.
Although Boko Haram has yet to claim responsibility for the bombings, France, which relies heavily on N'Djamena in the fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel region, accused the militants of being behind the attack.
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned Monday's attacks and
praised Chad "for its courageous role in the fight against Boko Haram".
Security
was stepped up in N'Djamena Tuesday, with scores of police and soldiers
patrolling the streets and stopping cars for security checks.
Vehicles
with tinted windows had been barred from the streets, and the area
around the presidential palace and the police headquarters -- which was
one of the bombers' targets, along with a police academy -- had been
sealed off.
The burqa ban was ordered by a crisis committee formed
on Tuesday after the president returned from an African Union summit in
South Africa. Prosecutors also arrested several people on the same day.
"Strict
instructions have been given to the government and security services...
additional measures were (also) taken by the head of state," said
Deubet.
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