Mehsud buying, selling children to use them as suicide bombers: Pak Army

August 24th, 2009 WANA - A commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Monday said his organisation will select a new chief in the next five days according to the instruction of their leader Baitullah Mehsud, a media report said. Waliur Rehman, commander of the group in South Waziristan, said: We have thousands of suicide attackers, who can destroy their (government) targets anywhere.

August 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least 25 people, including four soldiers, were killed in attacks and clashes across Pakistan's restive northwestern region, army and intelligence officials said Saturday. Three army personnel died when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security check post in Swat, where the army had launched an operation against militants in late April.

July 28th, 2009 PESHAWAR - Two-hundred boys, who were being trained at a secret location to carry out suicide attacks, were rescued by the security forces in northwest Pakistan, a media report said Monday. The boys, aged from six to 13 years, were rescued in Mardan in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Geo TV said.

July 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Security officials have arrested a cleric of a madrassa in Nurpur Thal village of Buland District on charges of imparting terror training to teenage boys and converting them into suicide bombers. According to sources, a madrassah organizer, Muhammed Rafeeq brainwashed youths and then send them to terror training camps based in the tribal areas.

July 4th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan intelligence agencies have warned that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud may target Chinese nationals in the country, as he has dispatched disabled teenage suicide bombers for the purpose. The Interior Ministry has issued a circular warning to all the concerned authorities about the threat.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud is virtually running an 'assembly line' of suicide bombers to wreak havoc in the troubled nation. A report in The Washington Times quoted US officials as saying, that Mehsud is recruiting small children as young as six or seven, to serve as suicide bombers.

July 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is buying children as young as seven years old to carry out suicide bombing, the Online news agency said citing reports Thursday. The price for a child bomber is between $7,000 and $14,000, a Pakistani official requesting anonymity said.

June 27th, 2009 MUZAFFARABAD - After purportedly being pushed out of the Swat and Malakand Divisions by the Pakistan Army, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in an apparent bid to expand its regime of terror, has claimed responsibility for the suicide strike in Muzaffarabad in which two security personnel were killed and three others injured here on Friday. Claiming the responsibility for the attack, a deputy to the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud, said the attack was in retaliation against the recent strikes carried out on its hideouts.

June 19th, 2009 LAHORE - The Taliban has dispatched three suicide bombers to carry out attacks in Islamabad and Lahore, it has been revealed. According to the Daily Times, one of the would-be suicide bombers, who was arrested earlier this month, has disclosed that the Taliban had sent two suicide bombers to Lahore and one to Islamabad to strike at important locations of the two cities.

June 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A militant leader who broke away with Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has accused him of killing former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a media report said Friday. Haji Turkistan Baetani, former right-hand man of Mehsud, claimed that Mehsud had planned the assassination of Bhutto.

June 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban is buying children for 500,000 to 2.5 million rupees to convert them into suicide bombers, and execute barbarous terrorist activities, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has revealed. Speaking at an award distribution ceremony, Malik said Pakistan is determined to continue the war against terrorism till the Taliban are flushed out of the country.

June 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces have killed 1,305 militants, including 40 suicide bombers, since the operation began against the Taliban in the country's northwest, the Online news agency said Sunday. In addition, 120 militants have been captured since the Operation Rahe-e-Rast was launched in April, Athar Abbas, director general Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said.

May 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud has ordered his operatives to strike small hamlets in the Swat and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and to look out for new hideouts in other parts of the country. According to The Nation, Mehsud recently had telephonic discussions with unknown accomplices and told them to carry out bombings in small villages, which in turn would promote suicide attacks in other areas of the country.

April 26th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - Security has been beefed-up here following intelligence reports about two suicide bombers trying to enter the city. According to a senior police official, two out of six suicide bombers could enter Rawalpindi, and the remaining four could trigger suicide blasts in Karachi.

April 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban is recruiting children and teenagers in Pakistan to transform them into suicide bombers to carry out deadly attacks across the country, in which scores of people have been killed in the recent past. According to a report in the Daily Times, at least 5000 child suicide bombers aged between 10 to 17 years have been trained by the Taliban till now, and are waiting to strike at the orders of their masters.