Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, April 27th, 2024

Save Children from Being Recruited as Suicide Attackers

There is no doubt that everyone knows about the evil nature of the Taliban. They have a destructive ideology that eliminates others. The Taliban do not believe in a dialogue among different political, social and cultural groups. They believe that all those who are unlike them must be eliminated. This ideology has manifested itself in the Taliban's involvement in massacres, and destruction of Buddha statutes during their rule, suicide attacks they have been carrying out over the last ten years.

The Taliban do not accept any role for women in the society, and even oppose girls' education. Due to this strict view, they have been burning schools and poisoning schoolchildren. The Taliban are against any manifestations of modern lifestyle. The militants employ any tactic and any means to achieve their goal. They employ women and children to carry out suicide attacks against Afghan government and international forces.

In a recent case, Afghan police in southern province of Kandahar arrested three children and teenagers while they were carrying explosives and hand-made grenades. UNICEF has expressed serious concerns over child recruitment as military forces.

According to the officials from UNICEF in Afghanistan, in 2011, 316 children under the age of 18 were employed as soldiers or as those who provide assistance in the battlefield. The arrested children in Kandahar wanted to blow up a police station.

Last week, the Taliban killed five members of a family in the Northern Province of Faryab when they refused to accommodate the militants. The victims included three women and two men. Taliban are now hated by Afghan people.

Grown tired of the Taliban's restrictions, people in Ghazni have revolted against the militants because they did not want to keep their children deprived of education, and their healthcare centers and bazaars to be closed. Those who have risen against the Taliban do not accept President Karzai's government.

This shows that President Karzai's government has failed to provide support and protection to the people against the Taliban. Instead, the government has tried to humanize the Taliban's brutality by calling them as unhappy brothers.

In order to save Afghan children from being recruited as suicide attackers by the Taliban, President Karzai must launch an anti-Taliban discourse and mobilize the people against them. The President must choose between his unhappy brothers and saving Afghan people, in particular the children.