« Rivals sign prisoner swap accord | Home | Pakistan preparing honourable exit for Musharraf »

Al-Qaida training children as suicide bombers in Pakistan

By admin | May 21, 2008

LONDON: Al-Qaida-linked militants have transformed a government-run school in the restive tribal region of Pakistan into a nursery for suicide bombers, training children as young as nine-year-old.

“It was like factory that had been recruiting nine to 12-year-old boys and turning them into suicide bombers,” Maj Gen Tariq Khan, the commander of the division that captured the area, was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. The camp was located in a territory in South Waziristan where the Baitullah Mehsud, operates.

At another location, military investigators found film footage on a DVD that they believed depicts children at the school being trained in suicide bombing. The footage, shown to journalists, contained images of a masked teacher instructing rows of school children who wore white headbands inscribed with Quranic verses.

Maj Gen Abbas, the army’s chief spokesman, said that the school and a hospital had been taken over by militants “to prepare children for suicide attacks and for making improved explosive devices”. Soldiers rounded up over 50 boys who were undergoing suicide attack training, the report said.

Topics: Top Stories |