Dawn - 17-07-10

Un-childlike acts

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has stated it has about 40 juvenile suicide-bombers in its custody and is preparing to deal with them and their families as demanded by their age, gender and so on. We are told that psychiatrists and other experts have been hired for this purpose and a new law put in place that allows child-beggars and other minors to be taken off the streets. This of course is good news. There can be no doubt at all we need a plan to rehabilitate would-be bombers and other categories of militants. This is all the more crucial in the case where they are children who deserve to be handed back a future robbed from them by extremist outfits.

But the KPK authorities, and also those in the centre, must not stop here. The presence of dozens of young boys in custody should be used also as a means to better understand what brought them there and how, for them, the walk towards militancy began. This could be vital to preventing others embarking on the same journey. Some things are already obvious. For all our children, everywhere, we need access to education and to opportunities in life. It is the absence of these which drives so many into the hands of the glib-tongued recruiters for militant outfits who approach families speaking of martyrdom, visions of Heaven and sometimes hard economic gain. This process continues in the north, in southern Punjab and in other places. If we are to prevent further children being netted for this evil purpose we must act to remedy these loopholes in our system and make society a safer place for everyone in it.

Source : http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=251275