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Taliban uses kidnapping, promises of Paradise to recruit teens
Easier to brainwash youth psychiatrist says
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
2011-04-13
Second in a series
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![A group of teenage boys, whom the military said were recruited by the Pakistani Taliban to carry out suicide bombings, are presented to the media with their faces half-covered in Peochar, Swat Valley, in September 2009. [REUTERS/Abdul Rehman]](/shared/images/2011/04/13/TeenRecruit1-218_172.jpg)
A group of teenage boys, whom the military said were recruited by the Pakistani Taliban to carry out suicide bombings, are presented to the media with their faces half-covered in Peochar, Swat Valley, in September 2009. [REUTERS/Abdul Rehman]
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![Relatives and officials pray near the coffins of army cadets killed in a suicide attack on a military training centre in Mardan February 10. A teenage boy in a school uniform blew himself up at the Pakistani army recruitment centre, killing 20 cadets, officials said. [REUTERS]](/shared/images/2011/04/13/TeenRecruit2-218_172.jpg)
Relatives and officials pray near the coffins of army cadets killed in a suicide attack on a military training centre in Mardan February 10. A teenage boy in a school uniform blew himself up at the Pakistani army recruitment centre, killing 20 cadets, officials said. [REUTERS]
![A group of teenage boys, whom the military said were recruited by the Pakistani Taliban to carry out suicide bombings, are presented to the media with their faces half-covered in Peochar, Swat Valley, in September 2009. [REUTERS/Abdul Rehman]](/shared/images/2011/04/13/TeenRecruit1.jpg)
![Relatives and officials pray near the coffins of army cadets killed in a suicide attack on a military training centre in Mardan February 10. A teenage boy in a school uniform blew himself up at the Pakistani army recruitment centre, killing 20 cadets, officials said. [REUTERS]](/shared/images/2011/04/13/TeenRecruit2.jpg)
PESHAWAR – “I was picked up by militants and taken to a place where I, along with a dozen others, was shown video films of the training of the suicide bombers, which impressed me a great deal,” Zakaullah Khan told Central Asia Online by telephone.
Khan is among 140 young militants who recently completed a deradicalisation programme at the army-run Sabaoon School in Malakand.
“Initially, I was upset when I was kidnapped by the Taliban, but later I felt satisfied because I was told that suicide bombing is the easiest way to Paradise,” he said.
Today, after completing the six-month programme at Sabaoon, Khan has learned job skills and is returning to a normal life.
Most bombers are 12 to 18
Psychiatrist Dr. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a leading specialist on the psychological problems of the militancy-hit Malakand Division, says a majority of suicide bombers are between 12 and 18 years old.
“It is easier to brainwash young people than old ones. The fresh minds are empty and can be filled with any stuff you want,” he said.
Aside from being easier to brainwash, children arouse less suspicion. On February 10, a teenage suicide bomber wearing a school uniform targeted an army parade, killing 20 cadets in Mardan.
“Children (bombers) are the integral and very effective weapons with which militants can hit at will at any place of their choosing. Children are also trained in kidnapping, assassination and detaining individuals,” Brig. (ret.) Mehmood Shah, former secretary of security for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), said.
Poverty and a lack of education are key weaknesses used by the Taliban to lure youths – and kidnapping is the Taliban's primary technique for finding youths to train.
“(The) soft targets are the poor and (uneducated) children,” said Iftikhar, who is involved in rehabilitating would-be bombers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA.
Brainwashing in extremist madrassas
While some children are snatched off the street, others come from madrassas – especially those run by extremists or by imams with poor knowledge of the Koran. Students receive an inaccurate or purposely distorted version of Islam and its teachings, officials said, and that leaves them vulnerable to militants.
“My son was at a Darul Uloom, and we thought that he was studying the Koran. One day the Taliban informed us that (my son) was going to take part in a suicide attack, which saddened us,” said Rehman Shah, a shopkeeper in Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur Agency.
Shah begged the Taliban for his son Javid’s life, he said. “Ultimately, the Taliban set free my son.”
But his son, already brainwashed by the Taliban, “was unhappy as he wanted to blow himself up at any cost,” Shah said.
Family members took 14-year-old Javid to Peshawar and exposed him to entertainment, films and the simple enjoyment of bazaars and city life to undo the Taliban’s isolation and brainwashing.
“Now I am convinced that I was wrong. I should study to help my poor parents,” Javid said recently.
Abducting children for bomber training
The Taliban also abduct poor street children for use as suicide bombers.
“Four children between 11 and 15 years have gone missing in Bajaur in the past two months,” Political Administration Tehsildar Shoaib Khan said in March. “Their parents are sure that their children have been picked up by the Taliban because they were all from poor families.”
The Taliban usually kidnap the rich for ransom and poor children for suicide bomber training, Shoaib said.
Authorities traced three kidnapped Dir District children to a South Waziristan militant training camp, intelligence officials said. The parents pleaded for their sons' release and ultimately paid Rs. 100,000 ransom (US $1,176) for each boy.
But others learn their child's fate only after it's too late. “In August 2009, a dozen men of a jihadist faction walked into my home and offered me Rs. 100,000 (US $1,176),” said Juma Khan, a resident of a small village in Charsadda District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “They told me that my son had successfully carried out a suicide bombing and had killed 14 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.”
Juma’s son Abdur Rauf, 15, had disappeared in February that year. “The group congratulated me that my son had earned Paradise,” Khan said. “I returned the money and kept silent because any hue and cry would have made the lives of my other three sons worse.”
“He was not the type to kill innocent people,” Rauf’s older brother Jehan Dad said. “Rauf was a class 10 student, but poverty always haunted him. He might have been lured by militants by (with money) and subsequently brainwashed.”
Taliban militant Qari Hussain, believed killed by security forces, once claimed that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have more than 250 suicide bombers ready to sacrifice themselves. Most of them are teenagers, experts say.
Parents feel powerless
“Several children have been picked up from schools and off the streets in Malakand, Dara Adamkhel, North and South Waziristan and Bajaur tribal agencies by militants but their parents cannot do anything against the powerful Taliban,” Mehmood Shah, the former FATA security secretary, told Central Asia Online. He knows many families with missing children who are afraid to tell police, he said.
“On August 8 last year, some unknown people kidnapped my 13-year-old brother (Jangriz), a class 8 student, while he was returning from school in Tank District,” said Mamraiz, a schoolteacher from Tank. “We knew that he had been kidnapped by the Taliban, but we stayed silent because we can’t challenge the powerful extremists. In January this year, we were informed by the Taliban that Jangriz had killed several policemen in a suicide attack in Hangu District.”
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Reader Comments
Farrukh
Islam does not allow suicide attacks. It is Haram in Islam. Dr Tahir ul Qadri is great Islamic Scholar. He has great contribution for the Muslim Ummah and the human world. Thanks to Dr Tahir UL Qadri
Afghan parliamentarians praise fatwa against suicide bombingsРая
We should be vigilant, support each other, and unite on a rainy day. Not only regional and international authorities should prevent such attacks, but ordinary people should by patriotic to defend their Motherland. Day and night.
Uzbekistan tightens security because of terror riskthe taliban should stop violence and stop the blame game that is being played time and again.
Taliban urged to stop election violence
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Reader Comments
Salam 2 Pak Armay.they serve the nation,and voilent terrorist taliban are the killers of the nation,,,Taliban are going opposite of Islam bcz Islam says men and women both should recieve education and bullshit taliban are destroyng education centers and stopping women from education...we the localas should get up against taliban and support PAK ARMY 2 better serve the country
They are criminals who kidnap people for money, & don`t have goals but serve their lives for smuggling & fighting. They can sell & buy lives, druggs, emonition & many other things. All enemies of muslims can recruit them to gain their purposes. They have trained wives and children to recruit for shooting and bomb blasting. TALIBAN genrated USA, KSA & PAKISTAN to defeet USSR in Afghanistan & India in Kashmir. Our agancies know well about taliban who were recruit in madrassas & have some little knowledge about Islam But criminals don`t know about basics of Islam, Please isolate both fighters.
talibans are army of yazid. they will go to hell.every muslim must protest against them.
Hi, May Allah give 1000000000 strength to Pak army against enemies. Ameen
Hazarah community is in target nowdays in Quetta,movements of the commuity has become limmitted,police and F.C are completly failed to maitain law and order in Quetta city which is contained on only 4 sq miles,Chief Minister n most of the ministers supprting them inshort there is no writ of government,voilation of humman right is the daily routine in the province.
all sush madrasaz forcefull closed
When all of us know that madrassas are the breeding grounds for terrorism, why does the Government not impose a ban on them?
Aoa no body else is to be blamed for what is happening to us except us....it\'s few out of us who just for some material or monetry lust let others spoil our country...it\'s few out of us who give refuge, help and assistance and work for CIA, RAW, MOSAAD etc. no one from outside can harm u if there is no rascal from inside...so stop blaming other and correct urself.....only then can we get out of this mess or more precisely AZAAB
we must should to help these peoples which are in the regions, such as FATA,vaziristan.no doubt,all bombers are not know that what they are doing because mostly are teenage.and when it picked up from street and then in MADRASSA do brainwashing,then these childern for going paradise lost every thing.this is all due to poverty and illetracy.............PAKISTAN IS NOT A TERRORIST COUNTRY. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD.
Sllam to evry 1
You guys continue writing such articles because you are being paid for this. Now most people know who is behind suicide attakcs in mosques and markets. Pakistani people are not such a fool that they couldn't differentiate between Taliban and terrorists. Government, media and several journalists of Pakistan are only working to defame Islam and Pakistan. Brothers, this is media war being fought against Muslims and even Muslims are tools and victims of this war. May Allah destroy enemies of Pakistan and worst punishement fall upon them. And may Allah show straigt path to people who have become tools or enemies of Islam and Pakistan. And those people who are unable to accept the right path, may Allah give them a harsh punishment as well. Ameen
why they went there not in case of paradise it is rare case but these are those phatans whos whole families are being killed by nato drone attacks.
plz dont cal thm taliban thy r terrorist.
my pakistan i love pakistan all people pakistan
All these activities are done by the RAW, CIA and MOSAD. These are big terrorist in Pakistan all the suicide attack are takeplace under the training of these biggest terrorist Organization. Pakitan is not a terrorist country. CIA,RAW and MOSAD kutti he ager muje kabi zindghi me in ka koey agent mil gya to direct katal karoo gha.
slaaam to pakisytan army, becoz i also want to make pakistan beauty and safe from tererest, i don,t like jahil people, taleem hasil karo or agay barho. pakistan zindabad,
we innocent pakistanies are like patients of artificial doctors.we can not do any thing against any artificial doctor,like our crucial government and WESTERN powers,all our enimies are unite and we are not..........so sad.ALLAH help us,we can pray or cry only due to our beger government policies.
all these kinds of madrasa sould be close positively because the taliban are know attacking on pakistan by the help of madrasaz
slammmmmmmmmmm pakistan army
Such people should be shot in open, our government is enjoying its sleep. . . .such agencies should be banned and we should pray to Allah.
WE LOVE ME ALLS FAMILY IS LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM SOO QUITE././././././././././.............
The cruel trainers don,t choose their own children, the find scape goats from the poor families.we should all think the solution to save poor from these cruel money earners.
i am surprised to see people of pakistan are so silly. these kisnappings are done by the blackwaters and CIA and their operatives in pakistan and their helpers in pakistan. have u people forgotton the history of pushtoon have u people forgot how they freed kashmir from india have you forgotton those pushtoon who fought against british. have you people forgotton the bravity of pushtoon? i am very sad to see pushtoon name who are saying nonsense about their own pushtoon. i am want to say give rights to pushtoon. give rights to baloch. give right to muhajir. take out army from tribles. no one can rule these trible areas with force. read history and find out those tibes who fought throughout in the history these are the same tribles who on the call of quaid e azam went to kashmir then there was no pakistani army. we should be thankful to them. but my words are not representative of the the most people here because we are fully brain washed by the internet and youtube. come out of the jews lobbing and conclude what is right and what is wrong. give rights and yes i agree justice.
justice in every sphere of life will lesser the activities of suicides bombers
May Allah bless us with His compession.
the loose judiciary system is the root cause of this crual game, judiciary and its vague policy regarding criminals is the base of suicidal attempts,so i think that the present judiciary is also involve in this game, and it needs to be a revolutionary change in the system
justice at all level is the only solution
We should find root causes of these terror activities,such injustice,crushed always poor people,corruption,burden of taxes on poor people,always choosing field for for battles in poor countries for shining the market of weapons etc.
Only \"JUSTIS\" and \"MERIT\" on all level can be help full to stop this terrible circumstances. I request all the nation to feel responsibility, though it will take a long long time to resume the previous calm situation. But this is the only way.
Thats not Taliban. Its not how they operate. These are Tehreek-e-Taliban pakistan militants and this militant group appeared after american invasion of Afghanistan. Tehreek-e-Taliban is not affiliated with the real Taliban in Afghanistan.
taliban are only the american makers to defame and to destroy ISLAM only.we all are being made suspicious not against taliban but against ISLAM in reality.please it is a deep request to all the peace-loving people to be unite against all these propagations
All trainers/ mullas/ taliban financers are provided by \"MI-6* & CIA. Base camps in UK are preparing these EVELS for Pakistan & Afghanistan. Drones proteceted these EVELS & destroy all victoms. CIA played same in LIBYA. My class-fello & best friend ANSER HUSSAIN QURRASHI visited that camp in UK himself.One trainer & master mind of bomb blasts in mosques arrested in MAY,2011 has accepted his affliation with MI-6 & ALQAIDA.
Dears if your are practicing muslim then give the proper solution. Practicing means you know? Taliban who was our frined tomarrow, today we have change our line & leave the Taliban alone. We was with Taliban for the sack of America & we become enemy of Taliban for the sack of America. Can you tell me Why? and dear who want to close madrisas should be killed for the sack of Allah!
This is sad to know, and sad for young kids falling victims to freedom fighters for \"NO\" cause.
You all commenters are fool. You are just like Rehman Malik, What America says is right and What our Religion says is wrong. Who are Taliban What are Taliban, These kind of activities are performed by american sub agencies in Pakistan.
it is vry bad .we can eleminate terriresom with help of islamic education
kill those mullas and closed such kind of madarsas for islam.
in pakistan evry thing is possible.
lets join hands to eliminate teriorism. lets make future of our kids safe small contribution ;;;; BE POLITE N HELPFUL TO EACH OTHER
very disgusting!!!!!! they are just keeping innocent people in dark by telling them tht it is easiest way to paradise! if they are ths much confident abt paradise y dont thy use theirselves for this golden opportunity.
i m 100% agree with this articl :becouse my self face & see the same situation i north waziristan.
We need to provide education to nothren areas and specialy in poor area of Waziristan. Government of Pakistan need to use the US Funds in this types of education. Government of Pakistan is also responsable to think for removing the poverity of those poor people who are using their children for suside attackes. All madrassas should have government registered Imams religious leaders.
This artical usefull provide awareness,but needs more detail and education among those area effecties are belongs.
It i very educative and informative article. this effort must continue inorder to protect innocent children andtheir parents from suffering and the pakistani nation from desaster.
all such madarsaz sould forcefully closed.