A fourteen year old boy, a suicide bomber in the making was captured after he failed to detonate his vest in an attack at the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province on 3 April. On being interrogated, he divulged shocking information about hundreds of suicide bombers that are currently being trained at camps in North Waziristan.
The failed suicide bomber, was identified as Fida Hussain, a resident of North Waziristan. While he failed in his attempt, his accomplices succeeded in carrying out the attack at the Sufi shrine by killing around 44 civilians and wounding more than 60 others.
“We have three facilities exclusively for fedayeen (suicide bombers). Each one has more than 350 men being trained in it,” Shakirullah Shakir, a purported spokesperson for the little-known Fidayeen-e-Islam Group of the Taliban.
The day that followed, i.e. 4th April, saw yet another Fedayeen attack on a bus stand in the North Waziristan region of Lower Dir. As per the police officials, the incident claimed lives of seven people.
Substantiating the claims of the failed suicide bomber, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have taken the responsibility of running three secret camps in South and North Waziristan tribal region close to the Afghan border, where more than 1000 potential suicide bombers are being trained.
“We have three facilities exclusively for fedayeen (suicide bombers). Each one has more than 350 men being trained in it,” Shakirullah Shakir, a purported spokesperson for the little-known Fidayeen-e-Islam Group of the Taliban, told the media.
“Fedayeen-e-Islam is a part of the overall chain of command of the TTP but it works separately and has its own structures,” Shakir said.
While Shakir admitted Mirali in North Waziristan, was home to one of the biggest and deadliest training camps, he refused to divulge any location details of the other two camps.
According to Shakirullah, of the many hundreds of suicide bombers who are receiving training in the three camps, some batches have already been sent out on fedayeen attack missions to Pakistan.
“They were trained in a religious school in Quetta which is run by Mullah Abdul Rahim. They were told they would make it to paradise if they blew themselves up”, Abdul Razaq, a senior provincial security official in Kandahar.
Although their targets remain under wraps, it’s only worth revisiting the public statement issued by a spokesperson for the Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, where he mentioned that both governor and chief minister of Balochistan province were on the hit list of the group.
Three suicide bombers, aged around 15 years each were arrested by the Afghanistan Police, in Spin Boldak district of Southern Kandarahar on Tuesday. They were arrested when they were trying to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, said Kandahar Governor, Toryalai Weesa.
Of the three suicide bombers arrested, two were from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan. According to the police officials, they had received training in Quetta, Pakistan.
“They were trained in a religious school in Quetta which is run by Mullah Abdul Rahim. They were told they would make it to paradise if they blew themselves up”, Abdul Razaq, a senior provincial security official in Kandahar.
They passed through Chaman, the Pakistani border city, before entering Afghanistan. Chaman is a forward command and control centre for Mullah Zakir, who leads Taliban’s Military Council as well as Mullah Dadullah Front of Al Qaeda, responsible for conducting high-profile attacks in the South.
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