Taliban executes 7-year-old child for ‘spying’
By Abdulhadi Hairan
2010-06-09
KABUL–Taliban militants executed a 7-year-old child June 8 for “spying for the government” in the volatile Helmand province of Afghanistan.
Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Central Asia Online June 9 the insurgents kidnapped the child and hanged his body from a tree after killing him in the Sarwan Kala area of Sangin District.
“The innocent boy was not a spy, but he may have informed the police or soldiers about planted explosives”, Ahmadi said.
A resident of the Sangin District told Central Asia Online by phone, “The child was the grandson of a local elder; tribal elders, particularly those who support the government or the reconstruction programmes, often get killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan”.
Militants regularly kill students, teachers, women, and farmers on charges of spying for the government. Local residents claim foreign militants are involved in most of these brutal acts. Local officials say the militants do so to instil fear and terrorise the population.
http://http://centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/caii/newsbriefs/2010/06/09/newsbrief-00
