2 Boys With Suicide Vests Are Arrested in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Two boys equipped with suicide vests were arrested here over the weekend, less than a year after one of them had been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai for the same crime, and presented to reporters on Sunday.

The boys, named Nasibullah and Azizullah, were described by officials from the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, as 12-year-olds who had been trained in Pakistani madrasas. The officials refused to give their names for security reasons.

Both boys appeared calm and outspoken at the news conference, and it was unclear if they understood the gravity of what it would mean to carry out suicide bombings.

Azizullah said he went to a madrasa in Quetta. The teachers told him, “ ‘You won’t be hurt; just go and carry out a suicide attack,’ ” he said.

There have been a number of children caught in the last two years with the intention of carrying out suicide attacks. Most have attended madrasas across the border in Pakistan and told to detonate the explosives near foreign soldiers or Afghan government security forces. The indoctrination is intense, with heavy pressure at the schools to engage in a holy war against the foreigners, said the intelligence officials in Kandahar.

Azizullah said that from the school, he was ferried across the border. He was arrested with a suicide vest in Kandahar, he said.

“Now I am requesting the government to forgive me and let me join my family. I won’t go back to the madrasa,” said Azizullah, who is from Gardez in Paktia Province.

The other boy, Nasibullah, has already been forgiven once. He said he was pardoned by Mr. Karzai during Ramadan last summer, but then returned to a madrasa in Pakistan where he was persuaded for a second time to carry out a suicide bombing.

Mr. Karzai follows the tradition of pardoning criminals during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, and in 2011 he pardoned a dozen children who had been arrested either for planning or attempting suicide attacks. The children were mostly under the age of 12 and one was only 8, according to Afghan and foreign news reports.

“The last time I was arrested by officials, I was sent to Kabul and I was brought before President Karzai,” Nasibullah said at Sunday’s news conference. “Mr. Karzai asked me what had happened. I explained that the Taliban wanted me to carry out a suicide attack and they put a vest on me and said ‘you can carry out a suicide attack,’ but I was arrested by policemen. Karzai told me, ‘Don’t worry son, we will send you back home,’ and so he pardoned me.”

Nasibullah, who officials from the intelligence directorate said was originally from Pishin in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, said he was hoping for a second reprieve. “I am again arrested by officials and now again I am requesting from the government to forgive me,” he said. “This time I won’t go back to the madrasa.”

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul, Afghanistan.

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