Rawalpindi, Jan. 10 (ANI): Pak-Taliban lured innocent and poor children into becoming suicide bombers by promising them that beautiful landscape and virgin women await them in heaven.
"When we got to this compound it was shocking for us," Lt. Col. Yusuf tells us, standing in the middle of what the Pakistani military says was a brainwashing center for children.
It was here that children aged 12 to 18 were turned from innocent youngsters into cold-blooded killers.
"They are also led to believe that the Muslims who are killed in suicide bombings, they will go to heaven as well. So that is a very powerful instrument of brainwashing Almost 90 percent of suicide bombers, if you look at their profile, are 12 to 18 years old," terrorism expert Zahid Hussain said.
Part of the compound consists of four rooms-each wall adorned with brightly colored paintings in clear contrast to the barren and harsh landscape surrounding it.
Each of the images has a river flowing through it. Some have people playing in the water. Others have women lining the banks.
The military says that the children are told that these are rivers of milk and honey, that the women are the virgins that await them in heaven.
That the children were told that they will live in the company of the holy prophet and be served feasts.
The images may appear simple. But for the children from this part of Pakistan they are captivating.
"They say life is a waste here and if you do a good thing you will go to heaven, immediately to heaven. For someone who does not have anything to look forward to, who does not have any opportunities and is living a wretched life, this sort of thing comes as a big incentive," Hussein said. (ANI)
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