Afghanistan Times
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Recently, a very shocking and most annoying news surfaced in media regarding child soldiers recruitment by the Taliban aimed at standing beside them to continue their irrational fighting in the country. It is said that the Taliban insurgents are recruiting children as soldiers to fight against government troops. Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah blamed insurgent groups for using child soldiers. “We won’t tolerate the use of children for military purposes.” He said that the national unity government is pursuing a zero-tolerance policy on child soldiers. Let the children live their childhood and it is still time for the Taliban to stop using children for their own goals. Abdullah’s concerns shall not be ignored because he is the CEO of the country and has better knowledge of the ground. However, let’s see what step the national unity government takes to convince the Taliban to stop child solider recruitment.
Previously, officials of the Nuristan province informed that scores of women in Gawhrdesh area of Kamdesh district were being trained by the Taliban to carry out suicide attacks. He said that the Taliban insurgents are providing training to the widows of their comrades killed in fighting with the security forces. The militants are abusing widows of their killed colleagues and possibly the case of child recruitment by them might have the same story. Somehow, it indicates that Taliban are providing training for the widows and also recruit their children to stand by their side. This time, Taliban become too feeble as they are taking advantage of children. It seems that after the death report of their long-time leader Mullah Omar, Taliban are now too weak as they didn’t hesitate even an inch to recruit children to continue fighting. They have unmasked their real face of brutality. The government should not turn blind-eyed over the issue because once the number of child solider increased, it would be difficult for the security forces to deal with such uncertain situation. The government should come up to the fore with comprehensive security mechanism to deal with the problem of child solider.
In several fronts, the Afghan security forces have defeated the Taliban. But we don’t believe on war only and the door for peace talks is already open for the Taliban and other insurgent groups. They must shun violence and most importantly stop recruiting children because war and bloodshed bring nothing but devastations. There is a proverb saying: “A bad beginning makes a bad ending.” And now, Taliban have started a very bad beginning by using children as soldiers. Still there is room for the Taliban to renounce violence and join the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process as Afghan leaders always remained constant over holding peace talks with them.
