Taliban Abuse Children.

Although in the West there are some who might well want to paint the Taliban (or the so called neo-Taliban) as somehow moderate, as if they have toned down their excesses of public hanging, or attacks on schoolgirls and the burning down of schools, we only have to wait before that facade is exposed.

More recently, the Taliban carried out a bombing in the center of Herat killing 12 people, injuring another 20.

In concert with that, the Taliban has been abusing children, by recruiting them as child soldiers. Readers will remember that the UN outlawed this disgusting practice about 7 years ago, read more:

“On Sunday, authorities in Swat’s main town of Mingora presented several teenagers alleged to have been forcibly recruited by the Taliban. Seven boys, their lower faces covered to prevent them being recognized, were shown to reporters.

One, a 16-year-old Shaukat Ali, said the militants abducted him while he was playing cricket. He said they told him they wanted him to be “a warrior” and offered to pay his family for his services.

Bashir Ahmad Bilour, senior minister of North West Frontier Province where Swat is located, said that dozens of children had been rescued by security forces and ranged in age from 6 to 15.

He claimed they were being trained as suicide bombers.

“They are prepared mentally. They say that Islam is everything for them. They say they are doing it for Islam. They say they have to carry suicide attacks for the sake of Islam,” Bilour told private Geo TV. “They are brainwashed to such an extreme that they are ready to kill their parents who they call infidels.”

He said 15 of the children were undergoing rehabilitation at an army school in the northwestern town of Mardan.”

This is not the first time, in 2007 UNICEF condemned Taliban’s use of child soldiers.

Child-soldiers.org has more, their 2008 report on Afghanistan.