| GEO Pakistan | | Taliban trained over 5,000 kids for suicide bombings | Updated at: 1242 PST, Thursday, April 23, 2009
KARACHI: More than 5,000 children have been trained by Taliban for suicide bombing, a foreign news agency revealed this in a report.
Intelligence estimates suggest more than 5,000 children have been trained by Taliban for deadly missions.
Hundreds more children are still undergoing brainwashing at dozens of ‘suicide nurseries’ run by the ethnic Pashtun Taliban commander. Mehsud. He heads Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group for around a dozen Taliban outfits and has close links with Al Qaeda.
The notorious commander is believed to have been behind several dozen suicide bombings across the country, including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in late 2007.
According to a report, in January 2008, during a short offensive, the military discovered a suicide nursery in the Spinkai area of South Waziristan.
Four months later, the military showed reporters video footage of a classroom where a masked teacher taught children how to carry out a suicide attack. The children, sitting in rows, were wearing white headbands inscribed with Quranic verses. Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the army’s chief spokesman, said that soldiers had rounded up over 50 boys who were undergoing suicide attack training.
According to intelligence estimates, more than 5,000 child suicide bombers between the ages of 10 and 17 have been trained by the Taliban so far.
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