AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) expressed its deep concerns over presence of children in the Taliban’s ranks.
The remarks came just few days after Afghan security forces arrested a child suicide bomber in Faryab province.
Rafiullah Bedar, spokesman of the AIHRC, while talking to Azadi Radio expressed his concerns over presence of children in ranks of the Taliban militants. He urged the terrorist group to restrain from recruiting children. “Based on Geneva Conventions, those fighting against governments should also abide by the international laws of war. The laws are against use of children as fighters,” he said. He added that using children in fighting is also against teachings of Islam.
Bedar said that they have urged the militant group to avoid using children in their fighting.
The chairman of Badakhshan provincial council, Bashir Ahmad Samim, also confirmed that the militants are using children in terrorism. “Children below the age of 18 have been spotted in the Taliban ranks,” he said.
The Taliban have been long accused of using children in fighting. However, the Taliban militants had constantly rejected the allegations and said they are not recruiting people bellow the age of 20.