Pakistan militants using young boys to carry out suicide attacks

NEW DELHI: With Pakistan witnessing a spate of suicide bomb attacks in the past few months, a leading magazine has reported that militant outfits were buying, selling or abducting young boys and keeping them as prisoners till they carried out attacks.

It also said that once these boys, many of whom as young as 13 years in age, were trained, they were barred from returning to their families or resuming normal lives.

"Investigators say that once these youths adorn suicide jackets, they cannot take them off and have to carry out their task," Pakistani magazine 'The Herald' said.

The report said it was 'not uncommon' for the outfits 'to buy and sell boys as young as 13 or even accept ransom in exchange for their release'.

The outfits lured teenagers and youths into their suicide squads from mosques, seminaries and religious gatherings and 'treat their recruits as prisoners'.

It quoted an instance in which three boys, who had been taken to the North Waziristan Agency by a militant group, won their freedom after their parents paid ransom for them.

"Officials later confirmed that 50,000 rupees had been paid for each boy. The militants justified their action by saying that neither the boys nor their training had come cheap.

"The boys had earlier been 'sold' to the militants by another extremist organisation," the magazine said.