Feature: Destitute children easy prey for militants' attacks in Afghanistan

In militancy-plagued Afghanistan where several armed groups including the Taliban have been fighting to regain power, children of impoverished families are easy targets for extremists to recruit to serve their evil purposes including conducting suicide attacks.

Qayamudin, 12, is one such child who was recently hired by the Taliban outfit in the western Badghis province to target government interests and terrorize the people there.

However, law enforcement agencies managed to arrest Qayamudin before he could reach his intended target and in doing so saved the lives of hundreds of potential victims.

"A Taliban commander gave me 1,000 afghanis (around 15 U.S. dollars) along with an explosive device two weeks ago and asked me to target spectators at a wrestling event at the Qala-e-Naw sports stadium," the would-be child suicide bomber told Xinhua.

The child, manipulated by the Taliban, worked as a helper in a shop in Badghis provincial capital Qala-e-Naw city for 50 afghanis per day and said that 1,000 afghanis was equal to 20 days' worth of earnings from his job in the shop.

The innocent youngster also said that the Taliban commander promised to take him home safe and sound after conducting the deadly attack.

Denouncing the Taliban's exploitation of children, the governor of Badghis province, Mohammad Anwar Ishaqzai, lambasted the Taliban and other terrorist groups in their attempts to harm civilians using innocent children as suicide bombers.

"Our investigations have revealed that the organizer of the failed terror conspiracy was a relative of the boy Qayamudin who had deceived the innocent child with the intention of killing him and many others," Ishaqzai told Xinhua, also exclaiming that the terrorists have no mercy and will spare no-one including children.

Ishaqzai also asserted that the facilitator of Qayamudin mission was supposed to detonate the child's explosive by remote control if he failed himself to detonate the explosive device among the crowd gathered to watch the wrestling.

The Taliban and other extremist groups, according to Afghan observers, are hiring children to use them as foot soldiers, messengers, lookouts, spies and even suicide bombers and mine planters on roads, to target military convoys.

This is not the first time that a child has been exploited by the Taliban to conduct suicide attacks. In 2014, a Taliban commander named Zahir persuaded his 10-year-old sister Spogmai to target a police station in the southern Helmand province, but the plan was foiled after police captured the girl and discovered the suicide vest.

In many cases, children and teenagers have conducted suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

A suicide attack in the French-run Esteqlal Lycee school in Kabul in late 2014, was reportedly carried out by a 16-year-old boy. The attack left 10 people dead and injured more than a dozen others.

Children are the most vulnerable demographic in Afghanistan, and 388 children have been killed and 1,121 others injured in the first six months of this current year in the conflict-hit country, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report issued here recently. Endit