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| Afghanistan | |
| Teen trained to be suicide bomber feels tricked | |
| 2009-01-03 | |
| A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again. "I miss my parents, my mom and dad," Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name. Lucky for you you're still able to miss them. Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming a would-be bomber. "I have been detained for trying to commit a suicide attack," he says. He says his recruiters told him it was his mission as a Muslim to kill British and American soldiers because they were killing Muslims. They told him that once he blew himself up he wouldn't die because God would save him for being a true Muslim. Asked what he now thinks of Americans and Westerners, Shakirullah is calm, but quick in his response. "I don't know. God knows what type of people they are, whether they are good or bad. I don't know them," he says. Hmm. Not a good sign. These guys want to save you, those guys want you to be a tool. That's not exactly a tough one.
He hasn't heard from his family in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He tried to send them a letter through the International Committee of the Red Cross but is not sure it reached them. "I don't know what they are thinking. They have no news of me," he says. On this day, Shakirullah attends a rehabilitation class, easily lost in the crowd of boys with shaved heads. All of the children are convicted for various crimes, including theft, fighting and even murder. Three boys like Shakirullah are here, all guilty of planning to kill themselves and others after being recruited by terrorist groups. With the increased violence in Afghanistan, international observers say they have seen more and more children being recruited by armed groups and national forces. The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan with its strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001, has regrouped and launched a fierce insurgency. Tricking kids is a fierce insurgency? I'd call it a deplorable, desperate act maybe. This is CNN... "As you see in many places in the world, children are being used in armed conflict. They've been recruited as child soldiers; they've been recruited as armed groups. And the phenomena is now impacting, again, Afghanistan," says Catherine Mbengue, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan. How about you go the HRW that, Catherine. Inside the detention center, Shakirullah walks up to his cell, his sandals sliding across the tile floor. The cell block is empty and has metal bunk beds lined across the wall and a television set, ready for the times they have electricity. Shakirullah shares this space with 10 other boys. He sits in the center of the room with a blanket draped around him. He barely makes eye contact and looks away as soon as he does. He is shy, but forthright in his words. "I didn't want to do it but he forced me to go," he says of his recruiter. Rubbing his face with his hand, he says he now spends his time dreaming of his life back home in rural Pakistan. His eyes begin to water and his voice becomes softer when he talks about missing his mother. Asked what he misses most about her, he says simply, "A mother is a mother." His was a life of farming and tranquility in Pakistan, he says. It was also a life that took a drastic turn when his father decided to send Shakirullah for studies at a madrassa. And your father is a mother, too, dude. He says his dad wanted him to learn more about Islam and the Quran, something he could not do himself. He says his father didn't know radicals ran the school. Yeah, Right. And my wife is Morgan Fairchild. In the madrassa, Shakirullah learned to recite the Quran in Arabic, not his native language. He relied solely on the fanatical interpretations the mullahs were giving him. "When I finished reciting the Quran, a mullah then came to me and told me, 'Now that you have finished the Quran, you need to go and commit a suicide attack.' That I should go to Afghanistan to commit a suicide attack," he says. "And then what?" "We'll talk about that after you get back." The teenager wasn't given the chance to say goodbye to his parents or siblings when he was driven to the Pakistan-Afghan border and handed over to strangers. He says he was taken to the southeastern province of Khost, a hotbed for terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Suicide attacks have risen in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban began in late 2001, after the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Shakirullah says that before the police arrested him, he was learning how to drive a car but that he was not sure how he was supposed to carry out his attack. Here's a clue: Did they teach you how to park the car? At the juvenile detention facility, Shakirullah and the others are now being taught a different interpretation of Islam. I hope it involves the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That's Holy with a capital H, not 'holey', you know. "The teachers educate them on Islam, and explain to them that the acts that they were doing is not right for them and for others," says Mir Fayaz ah-Din, who works and lives with the boys at the facility, mentoring them and helping them in their rehabilitation. "The way you want to kill yourself and someone else -- it in itself is a big offense in Islam." Instead, you should go get yourself a doctorate in mechanical engineering and then steer an airplane into a building. Shakirullah now says of his recruiters, "They cheated me." Maybe you can shame your madrassah teachers into paying for a degree. | |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #5 Do they get demerits for laughing at it, SH? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-01-03 23:54 |
| #4 He describes his indoctination into suicide bombing as a pretty haphazard affair. My kids are getting a better indoctination in public schools. They watch Al Gore's movie in every class every year. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2009-01-03 23:51 |
| #3 Feel sorry for the kid. Ship is probably right. Got sold and the buyers ruined him for life. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-01-03 12:38 |
| #2 His was a life of farming and tranquility in Pakistan, he says. It was also a life that took a drastic turn when his father decided to send Shakirullah for studies at a madrassa.
He's likely a hopeless case, but I'll bet his family sold him. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2009-01-03 07:06 |
| #1 Well, if I were one of his teachers I'd be careful about the grades I give him. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-03 05:30 |