Suicide bombings a torment for Pakistan children

The Taliban have recently blurred the distinction between civilian and official targets, apparently to avenge the ongoing army offensive in their South Waziristan heartland by making Pakistan look like a failed state that is unable to protect its citizens.

And this brutal scheme might be working, at least with the young children, many of whom have started to presume that the Taliban are growing more powerful than the state.

In North-West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital, children have changed the traditional game of tag where the “cops” chased the “robbers.” In the new version, Taliban pursue the police, and the strongest boy takes pride in leading the “militant team.”

“The children go after a symbol of power. A policeman, a soldier or a judge is a symbol of power for those in a functional state,” explained Mufti.

“But in a region where the Taliban have so far proved superior to the foreign forces (in Afghanistan) and Pakistani forces (in Pakistan), the inspirational symbols will automatically change,” he added.

A suicide bomber, with capacity to cause maximum devastation, is emerging as a symbol of power for some children - not only those stricken by poverty and brainwashed at radical seminaries, but also those born into prosperity who study at English-language schools. Dimitry Ivanov, a Russian journalist, was visiting a shopping centre in an upmarket neighbourhood in Pakistani capital Islamabad, when a 12-year-old child ran towards him shouting “some noises.”

“First I thought the child was going to snatch my bag, I held it fast,” said Ivanov. “Later on, my friend, who got frightened when the child approached us, explained to me that the child was pretending to be a suicide bomber.”

Three or four friends of the child standing in one corner laughed loudly and clapped as they saw my friend, also a foreign journalist, getting frightened, Ivanov recalled.

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