SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Using children as a soldier has long history. For centuries children have been involved in military campaigns. What is frightening nowadays is the escalation in the use of children as fighters. Recently, in 25 countries, thousands of children under the age of 16 have fought in wars. In 1988 alone, they numbered as many as 200,000. Once recruited, children undergo varying degrees of indoctrination, often verging on the brutal. In present IS a notorious terrorist group is using children in militancy campaigns while TTP in FATA is also doing the same. Militants use various tactics such as kidnapping, using religious blackmailing and brainwashing in Fata. Two alleged militants confessed before the judicial magistrate that they used to kidnap children from different areas of Karachi and then send them to a training center in Waziristan where they were trained to carry out suicide attacks. A 14-year-old accomplice of the suicide bomber who struck a shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan in 2011 and killed 50, informed the authorities that 400 suicide bombers were being trained to inflict carnage in the country. Umer, 14, who was a Fidayee (a person ready to sacrifice his life) said that the would-be bombers were being trained in North Waziristan. According to the Unicef report, Umer made these remarks in an interview on April, 8, 2011. The young boy said that he was recruited to kill non-Muslims in Afghanistan. He shared some harrowing details of his own recruitment and of some 350-400 children who were being trained in Mir Ali, a sub-division of North Waziristan, to carry out suicide bombing in the country. According to the report “It is recommended that the Fata plan of action must be formulated with tangible targets for education, health and child protection”. Other recommendations have demanded implementation of the federal government’s child protection policy in Fata, review and introduction of child right laws, strengthening the child protection system, enactment and enforcement of compulsory education law and improving education environment.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
