A would-be suicide bomber arrested in S. Waziristan

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: The Frontier Corps Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (South) has arrested the suspected Afghan suicide bomber in South Waziristan.

According to details surfaced on Sunday, the detainee gave a confession that contains startling revelations about Taliban activity and recruitment.

The man identified himself as Nimatullah, son of Musa Jan. He said he is a resident of Kandahar province in Afghanistan and a student at the Johriyah madrassa in Kandahar.

In his recorded confession Nimatullah described recruitment of minors by the Afghan Taliban and the group Fitana al-Khawarij. He said commanders used religious instruction to persuade young boys to take part in terrorism against the Pakistan armed forces.

Nimatullah said a group of 40 people assembled in Khost and entered Pakistan via Chiwar.

They reached South Waziristan where the Taliban run a training centre, he said.

He said the group went to Barwand in the Lali Zai area of South Waziristan, where the Taliban had a centre. He named the local commander as Umar Hamas, who provided instruction in suicide attacks.

The course for suicide attacks lasted three months, Nimatullah said, while he received one week of instruction. He said the course included methods to attack a vehicle as a suicide bomb.

Naimatullah named his commander as Omar Hamas and described the suicide-attack training: “The training for suicide attacks was three months long, while I received one week of training. During that time we were taught how to carry out vehicle-borne suicide attacks.”

Nimatullah said members of the madrassa told him that attacks on Pakistani forces were lawful.

During the course he heard the call to prayer and concluded that the Pakistani army are Muslims; he said an attack on them is therefore religiously forbidden.

The confession supports the view that the Afghan Taliban recruit and indoctrinate young boys to carry out terrorist acts against the Pakistan armed forces.

Officials said the suspect’s revelations demonstrate that the Afghan Taliban are recruiting and ideologically shaping young men — using religious indoctrination to encourage terrorist activities against Pakistan’s armed forces.