Boy in Pakistan tells police of school for suicide bombing
>From Nasir Habib, CNN
April 9, 2011 -- Updated 1822 GMT (0222 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Umar Fidai says, "I did a wrong thing"
* He tells police 300 children are being trained at a strike
* A militant dangles a tantalizing reward for the boy: Heaven
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A sorrowful Pakistani teen suspected of
collaborating in this week's deadly suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine is
claiming to police that scores of his young peers at a camp in the nation's
perilous tribal region are being trained to stage attacks.
"I did a wrong thing," Umar Fidai said from his hospital bed aired on national
TV Friday. "Please forgive me."
Fidai was arrested alive after the suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine on Sunday
killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 100. The blast occurred in Dera
Ghazi Khan in Punjab province.
The boy hails from a village in the Pakistani tribal district of North
Waziristan, an area that is next to war-torn Afghanistan. The Taliban and al
Qaeda have had a strong presence in the region, and Sunni Muslim militants
based in Pakistan have staged attacks in Afghanistan.
Fidai said in TV interviews he got suicide bombing lessons for six months,
including training to use pistols, grenades and a suicide jacket. He said an
Afghan Taliban leader named Mullah Sangeen was in charge of the training camp.
Twin suicide bombers kill dozens
RELATED TOPICS
* Pakistan
* Terrorism
* Suicide Attacks
He said he had been recruited one day as he was coming home from school, when a
Taliban leader named Qari Zafar met him and persuaded him he would go to heaven
if he carried out a suicide attack.
"The moment you will press the button of your suicide jacket, you will
immediately go to heaven," Fidai said Zafar told him.
"I was only keener to go to heaven. I never thought about my family members
during the training," said Fidai, whose father is dead and whose two younger
sisters live in Esa Khel, his home village.
Fidai gave the interview in police custody. It is unclear how representative
his comments are of his own opinions or experiences.
Ahmed Mubarak, the police chief of the Dera Ghazi Khan district, said the teen
told police that more than 300 boys between ages 12 and 17 are being trained in
North Waziristan's Mir Ali area to stage suicide bombings.
The boy also told police that Uzbeks and Tajiks are among the militants in that
region of Pakistan, indicating the presence of foreigners there.
In his televised comments, Fidai advised the boys in training that the strikes
are un-Islamic and that they should refuse to stage them.
In the bombing Sunday, a man blew himself up when he was stopped at the
entrance of the Sakhi Sarkar shrine, and a second would-be suicide bomber
wearing an explosives-laden jacket was arrested, Mubarak said.
The shrine is on the outskirts of the district capital, more than 400
kilometers (about 250 miles) south of Peshawar.
Dera Ghazi Khan is no stranger to violent bombings. Dozens of people were
killed in a December 2009 bombing that ripped through a market near the home of
a provincial official.
Another blast earlier that year struck a crowd of Shiite Muslims as they took
part in a procession toward a mosque, killing scores of people.
Pakistan is largely Sunni Muslim, and militants there have targeted religious
minorities, like Shiites, Sufis and Christians.
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