Pak schoolboy reveals how Taliban brainwashed him into becoming suicide bomber

[1]

A Pakistani schoolboy who failed in his suicide bomb bid as his partner launched an attack at a Pakistani shrine earlier this month, has spoken of the terror mission and how he was brainwashed by the Taliban.

"All I was thinking was that I had to detonate myself near as many people as possible. When I decided it was the right time, it was a moment of happiness for me," the BBC quoted 14-year-old Umar Fidai, as saying.

"I thought that there would be a little bit of pain, but then I would be in heaven," he added.

The failed suicide bomber revealed the plan was that the other brainwashed schoolboy- Ismail- would ‘blow himself up near the shrine. I would wait for the ambulances to come and detonate myself near them to kill more people. I had no doubts at all beforehand.’

But Umar blew off his own arm, tore open his abdomen and was knocked unconscious as his suicide jacket failed to explode properly, and reached for a grenade in his pocket after regaining consciousness. As Umar raised the grenade to his mouth to pull out the pin with his teeth, a police officer shot him in the arm.

"We had been taught that if the belt does not go off, we should kill ourselves with the grenade. There were three policemen standing close by, and I thought if I killed them too, I would still make it to heaven," said Umar.

His journey to get to this point had started five months earlier, in his hometown in the mountainous tribal regions of north-west Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, the report said.

"Where I used to go to school, there were Taliban all around. One day one of them told me to go with him to become a suicide bomber, but I told him, if he wanted to kill people he should do it himself, not ask children. But he kept coming back," said Umar

"He said there was no point studying. He told me that nothing was better than paradise, and that you could earn that by killing non-believers… The Taliban prayed all the time and read the Quran, so I thought they were good people. My heart told me to go and train with them," he added.

Umar said he was blindfolded and sometimes handcuffed when he was taken to the training compound, where he was taught how to use weapons and explosives, with three other boys.

He is now scared that the Taliban could come to kill him at any time for failing in his suicide mission.