Failed suicide bombers talk about the choices they made
SONYA FATAH
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Farmanullah Guljaan, 17 sits behind bars in Poli Charkhi prison, some 15 kilometres east of Kabul. He would have been home in Lodhikhel village in the tribal areas, finishing up his high school degree if he hadn’t been taken in by Taliban evangelists showing up every day at his school and weaving heroic tales of martyrdom, passports to heaven and countless virgins to tend to his every need.
But Mr. Guljaan, who says his village is not a Taliban stronghold, found himself intoxicated by the thought of early entry past heaven’s gates. He dropped out of Kamaruddin School, where he was in eighth grade and began attending classes at a camp some distance away. Every time he went away to the camp, he told his parents who had eight other children to tend to, that he was going to visit relatives in Peshawar. They had no reason to be suspicious.
Mr. Guljaan’s ‘relatives’ turned out to be trainers at a local camp not too far away. After two years of being brainwashed with anti-American propaganda, Mr. Guljaan was given an assignment – he was to kill the governor of Jalalabad. The weapon of choice: explosives attached to his body.
Mr. Guljaan, however, failed to complete his mission. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency received word about his mission, and foiled the attack. The day Mr. Guljaan and his partner, Abdul Qudoos, also 17 arrived in Jalalabad, the two were detained. They have since spent the last few months in the lock-up, after a series of investigations have revealed the manner in which they were recruited, taught and sent on missions.
Their stories are not unusual. Their confessions are part of a growing file documenting the experiences of other young, impressionable teenagers easily groomed for revolution and brainwashed with anti-western propaganda. Of the many men sent on suicide missions few are caught before the deed is done. But Mr. Guljaan joins a group of 15 young men who have been arrested in Kabul by Afghan intelligence authorities since 2005. Most of the young men pulled out to commit attacks end up successful. Among those caught, few find themselves in Afghan jails. If caught before their mission is carried out, they usually detonate themselves to avoid capture.
“According to our information most of the young men who commit suicide bombs are between 13 and 20 years in age,” says Saeed Ansari a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. “They are indoctrinated with religious views.” In some cases, Mr. Ansari said, those assigned to a mission were informed of their specific role through a hand-written letter, a veritable passport to heaven.
The training camps, Afghan authorities say, are all in Pakistan, although those who carry out the attacks can be Pakistani, Afghani, Chechen, Arab or Kazakh. Despite President Musharraf’s public offer to give absolute assistance to jointly work to root out the camps, NDS officers say cooperation with the Inter Services Intelligence, or the ISI, is non-existent.
Earlier this year, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pardoned failed suicide bomber, Rafiqullah, 15, who was from Shamen Qile in Mateen District in southern Waziristan. Mr. Rafiquallah’s mission had been to kill the governor of Khost province. His parents had no idea that he had been recruited by a madrassa in their village. After their son was returned to his home village with the president’s pardon and $2000 USD, his parents withdrew him from that madrassa. A host of other parents followed suit. The villagers of Rafiqullah’s area were so opposed to the madrassa’s activities that they came together and fought against Baitullah Masood, the 37-year old Taliban commander from Waziristan. Eventually, Mr. Masood withdrew.
Mr. Guljaan hopes that the president will be so kind to him. He is lodged, at present, at Poli Charkhi prison, set against the landscape of barren land and dusty mountainside. Built in the mid-1970s during the time of then-president Mohammed Daoud Khan, it is legendary for nighttime executions of political prisoners by communist forces in the country. Thousands of peoples were shot and killed, and a mass graves bearing their remains was unearthed in December 2006. Today there are about 1,300 prisoners here, about 350 of who have links with the Taliban.
Mr. Guljaan says he is well looked after here. There is even a madrassa that he attends to get increase his knowledge of Islam. Prior to going on his mission for the Taliban, Mr. Guljaan didn’t know much about Islam. He had read the Quran only in Arabic, a language he can read but not understand. His inspiration came from other sources.
“I saw a video on my cell phone. A video of American soldiers storming peoples houses, killing little children, and stamping on the Quran,” he says. That angered him but he was also excited at the prospect of being fast tracked to heaven. His father, who was a labourer, is currently unemployed he says.
Perhaps Mr. Guljaan’s less than convincing reasons for joining the movement also worried his Taliban commanders. Unlike most other suicide bombers, Mr. Guljaan was sent on his mission with a partner. The two were introduced to one another a day they set off for Afghanistan. The partner, Abdul Qudoos, was to egg Mr. Guljaan on, and set off the bomb by pressing a button on the remote control as Mr. Guljaan approached his target. He was then to return with news of their success.
But Mr. Qudoos and Mr. Guljaan were caught the night they entered Jalalabad, hours before they could complete their mission.
As he sits in jail contemplating his situation, Mr. Guljaan wonders what better fortunes awaited him if he hadn’t made what he describes today as a ‘big mistake.’ “I could’ve become a teacher, or gone into construction industry like my father,” he pauses. “I don’t know. How could I know?”
Some say the young failed suicide bombers reflect the tragic lack of proper guidance from community leaders, parents and the state.
“At that age your capacity to think is not developed,” said a senior NDS official who did not want to be named. “You are more a receiver of information or knowledge and haven’t shaped your own way of thinking yet.”
It’s difficult to know much about those who take their lives in suicide attacks but the testimony of youth like Mr. Guljaan, Mr. Qudoos, and Mr. Rafiqullah weave a tale of youth easily misled by fantastical visions, doctored videos and promises of passports to heaven.
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