MOSCOW, January 26 (Sputnik) – Taliban tried to compel a 10-year-old girl to commit a suicide attack against the Afghan Security forces, however she managed to escape and surrender, Khaama Press reports, citing officials.
24 January 2015, 09:52 GMT
The girl, identified only as Gulsoom, was kidnapped in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the restive Helmand province, according to the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. She was then forced to carry a bag full of remotely controlled explosives towards an Afghan security checkpoint but surrendered before they were detonated, Khaama Press said.
Human Rights Watch reported in 2011 that the Taliban had forced children as young as seven years old to carry out suicide attacks. The NGO quoted Brad Adams, HRW Asia director, as saying that "Any political movement or army that manipulates or coerces children into becoming human bombs has lost touch with basic humanity."
Over the last decade, Afghan authorities arrested as many as 250 children, who were groomed to become suicide bombers by the Taliban, according to BBC.
