By THE INDEPENDENT
Added: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:00:00 UTC

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sharmeen-obaidchinoy-children-are-tools-to-achieve-gods-will-the-taliban-commander-told-me-1764029.html

Twenty-five children appear in a Taliban propaganda video wearing the traditional Pakistani shalwar kameez. They sit cross- legged on the ground rocking back and forth reciting the Koran. A white bandana tied across their forehead, reads: "La illaha illala: There is no God but God."

The compound they are in is bare. In one corner, three young boys hold automatic guns keeping watch. Their teacher, dressed in brown military fatigues walks around reading aloud from a book titled Justifications for Suicide bombing and makes a list on a whiteboard – "Reasons for killing a spy". The text on the screen reads "Preparing suicide bombers".

In another chilling video, three boys speak about their desire to become suicide bombers. The video introduces Zainullah, who later blows himself up killing six, Sadique, who blows himself up killing 22, and Masood who kills 28. The video contains footage of their attacks and in the background a young child sings: "If you try and find me after I have died, you will never find my whole body, you will find little pieces."
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-running-school-for-suicide-bombers-1764028.html

Pakistan said yesterday it had rescued 20 young boys who were among hundreds recruited by the Taliban and brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers at a secret indoctrination camp.

The boys, some as young as nine, have revealed details of how they were induced to become part of the Taliban's army of jihad inside Pakistan and told their rescuers that more than 1,000 children may be undergoing training in the special camp in the Swat valley. Their discovery by the army as troops were sweeping through the valley conducting the final stages of a military offensive against the Taliban underscores the organisation's power over poor Pakistani communities and the extreme lengths Taliban commanders are willing to go to achieve their aims.

The rescued children were held at a training camp in the Charbagh area of the Swat valley, where their indoctrination programme reportedly lasted more than a month. Some were recovered as the army was carrying out "search and sweep" operations as part of the final stages of its military offensive in the valley, while others were handed over to the army by worried parents
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"While boys selected to be informers were chosen for their intelligence and street knowledge, the more athletic ones were picked to train as the next generation of Taliban fighters, and instructed in how to mount the sort of small-scale guerrilla attacks with which the Taliban have been harrying the Pakistan army during their two month-long offensive in the valley. Meanwhile, those who were judged to be less intelligent and more susceptible to manipulation were chosen to join the Taliban's stockpile of suicide bombers. According to the young boys interrogated by the army, this group was kept separately and prized for their potential to cause large army fatalities."
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-running-school-for-suicide-bombers-1764028.html

TAGGED: ABUSE, CHILDREN, RELIGION