Source: Channel 6 News
http://channel6newsonline.com/2011/07/taliban-hang-8-year-old-boy-in-southern-afghanistan/
KABUL (BNO NEWS) — Suspected members of the Taliban on Friday hung the 8-year-old son of a local police commander in southern Afghanistan after ordering his father to surrender, according to a news report on Saturday.
The Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) news agency reported that the young boy was kidnapped by militants in the Greshk district of Helmand province on Tuesday. They had ordered his father to surrender to the Taliban or else the boy would be executed.
“The militants had warned his father, who is a local police commander, to surrender with his police vehicle and weapons, otherwise they would kill his son,” provincial governor spokesman Daud Ahmadi told DPA. The boy was hung on Friday.
While child executions by the Taliban are not common, children often fall victim to Taliban militants when they carry out attacks. But children have also been used by the Taliban as suicide bombers.
On May 1, four civilians were killed and 12 others were injured when a 12-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban however have denied that they use children to carry out their attacks.
