Author: AFP
Publication: Daily Times
Date: August 7, 2009
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C08%5C07%5Cstory_7-8-2009_pg7_30
Would-be suicide bomber still considers suicide
attacks best way to tackle any person who becomes hurdle in implementing sharia
The scars may take years to heal for Hamad
Ahmad, one of many boys purportedly brainwashed by the Taliban and determined
to enact maximum carnage as a suicide bomber.
Ahmad says he wants to carry a pistol and
strap explosives to his body in the name of sharia - not hold books and wear
school uniform.
"I am ready to carry out a suicide attack
against any target with approval of my ameer (chief)," said 15-year-old
Hamad, who claimed he received 40 days of training from the Taliban after
being held last year.
Hamad, who talked by telephone from Qambar
village in Swat, is now among a group of teenagers being treated by military
psychiatrists. Hamad's father, Furqan Ahmad, found his son receiving militant
training in the Swat town of Charbagh last February, two months after he mysteriously
disappeared and before the latest military offensive began.
"My son disappeared in December after
I thrashed him for carrying a pistol," said Furqan, a bank employee.
"I was able to get him back with the help of a Taliban commander, who
was known to me.""The Taliban completely brainwashed my son, who
was studying in ninth grade. He is now even more violent and doesn't let his
mother and sisters watch TV, calling it un-Islamic," Furqan said.
Suicide attacks: "Any one who stops or
becomes an impediment to implementing sharia needs to be dealt with sternly
by any means, including suicide attacks," he said.
Seemingly never-ending tales of terror abound
in Swat, where the military has fought against the Taliban since Fazlullah
rose up two years ago and where parents speak of being forced to surrender
young boys. "We have contacts with about 100 children who are living
with their parents. They visit us routinely and a psychiatrist sees them regularly,"
said military spokesman Major Nasir Ali Khan in Khwazakhela, a town in northern
Swat.
But the precise numbers are unclear. ISPR
Director General Major General Athar Abbas confirmed recently 11 boys trained
as suicide bombers were taken into custody. Other officials charged that hundreds
of boys were recruited.
Boys told military officials that a foreigner,
probably an Uzbek, used to impart training to them for suicide attacks.Khan
said the Taliban training came in three parts. For two weeks boys were taught
to provide tip offs about security force manoeuvres. Then came a 40-day militant
training and lastly, training in the art of becoming a suicide bomber.
In Khwazakhela, the military took reporters
into a dimly lit room, once used as science laboratory, to speak to boys -
masked to protect their identity.
"The Taliban took me to Charbagh at gunpoint
and later to Matta where they set up a training camp inside a government school,"
said one 16-year-old.
"There were at least 30 men who used
to train us in Matta," said the youth, a small beard already growing
on his face.
"They used to say there is a great reward
in heaven for anyone slaughtering a soldier and same reward if you slaughter
someone telling you it is wrong," added the boy, who said he escaped
back to his parents.