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KABUL: Throughout decades of war, the Afghan children, who have often been deprived of education and from a joyful life, were triggered into conflicts by the armed groups that resulted into their killing, maiming and even losing part of their bodies during the conflicts.
In northern Jawzjan province, 16 years old, Alias Rahmatullah has recently extracted from the Taliban command and enjoys life in an area out of the militants’ control. In an exclusive interview with the Salam Watandar Radio, he said that teenagers in areas under control of the Taliban have often been used for guerilla attacks and roadside mines. Rahmatullah said there are some foreign insurgents, who recruit the teenagers and trained them for suicide attacks and planting mines on the roads. “Each commander has up to 20 teenage boys on his command”, he said.
Provincial security officials confirmed the issue, saying that these foreign militants. These terrorist groups are from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Chechen.
Jawzjan Police Chief, Abdulwahid Wijdan said the foreign militants settled in a number of districts, where they often recruit new youths under age of 18.
But the Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid denied the existence of foreign fighters on the group’s ranking.
Earlier, The United Nations in its annual reports verified that around 3,410 grave violations against 3,245 Afghan children were committed by the militants, Afghan and international security forces in 2019 in Afghanistan.
Of total 3,149 children, including 2,226 boys, 910 girls and 13 unidentified sex, the UN report said at least 874 of them were killed and 2,275 were maimed.
The militants totally caused 1,535 casualties, 1,238 of them attributed to the Taliban and 242 of them to IS, and unidentified groups were responsible for 55 casualties.
The pro-government and international caused 784 casualties on the children, the report said, adding that the international forces were responsible for 248 casualties.
The alleged crimes against the children are not only noticed in the militants groups.
The US Department of State in an earlier report spoken off the underage recruitments in the Afghan National Police ranking, saying that children have been used for sexual affairs and that the acts of “bach-bazi” still among the police personnel.
“There are consecutive reports of security forces and local police officers’ “bacha-bazi” but the officers have never been held accountable for conducting “bacha-bazi”,” the report said.
In addition to the children’s abuse for sexual affairs, they were also used for armed attacks by conflict sides in the frontier.
The abuse of teenagers in conflicts has been constantly criticized by the Islamic Ulema as well. A religious cleric, Mohammad Rasul Mujahaz said the abuse of innocent children and teenagers in suicide bombing and conflicts were prohibited.
Based on Save the Children, an international organization, millions of the Afghan children have been deprived of education in Afghanistan.
