An Afghan military checkpoint on the outskirts of Tarin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province (AFP Photo/RATEB NOORI) 
 
 The Taliban are using child sex slaves to mount crippling insider attacks on police in southern Afghanistan, exploiting the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi" -- paedophilic boy play -- to infiltrate security ranks, multiple officials and survivors of such assaults told AFP. 
 
 The ancient custom is prevalent across Afghanistan, but nowhere does it seem as entrenched as in the province of Uruzgan, where "bacha bereesh" -- or boys without beards -- widely become objects of lustful attraction for powerful police commanders. 
 
 The Taliban over nearly two years have used them to mount a wave of Trojan Horse attacks -- at least six between January and April alone -- that have killed hundreds of policemen, according to security and judicial officials in the province. 
 
 "The Taliban are sending boys -- beautiful boys, handsome boys -- to penetrate checkpoints and kill, drug and poison policemen," said Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai, who was Uruzgan's police chief until he was removed in a security reshuffle in April amid worsening violence. 
 
 "They have figured out the biggest weakness of police forces -- bacha bazi," he told AFP. 
 
 The assaults, signifying abuse of children by both parties in the conflict, have left authorities rattled, with one senior provincial official who echoed Rogh Lewanai's view saying "it's easier tackling suicide bombers than bacha attackers". 
 
 The killings illustrate how bacha bazi is aggravating insecurity in Uruzgan, a remote province which officials warn is teetering on the brink of collapse, unravelling hard-won gains by US, Australian and Dutch troops who fought there for years. 
 
 "These bacha attacks have fuelled deep mistrust within police ranks," Seddiqullah, a police commander at a checkpoint near the provincial capital Tarin Kot, told AFP. 
 
 The insurgents are using boys as honey traps, said 21-year-old Matiullah, a policeman who was the only survivor from an insider attack in Dehrawud district in spring last year. 
 
 He said the attacker was the checkpoint commander's own sex slave, a teenager called Zabihullah. Late one night, he went on a shooting spree, killing seven policemen including the commander as they slept. 
 
 "He brought the Taliban inside and poked all the bodies with rifle butts to see if anyone was alive. I pretended to be dead," said Matiullah, who now works as a tailor, pointing out a gash on his forehead. 
 
 "As his Taliban accomplices gathered our weapons and ammunition, Zabihullah declared: 'Everyone is dead'." 
 
 - 'Addiction' to boys - 
 
 The Taliban, who banned bacha bazi during their 1996-2001 rule, roundly denied deploying any underage boys for insider attacks. 
 
 "We have a special mujahideen brigade for such operations -- all grown men with beards," a Taliban spokesman told AFP. 
 
 The insurgents have long denied using children in combat, a claim repeatedly debunked by rights groups and the government. 
 
 Survivors of insider attacks who spoke to AFP, including Matiullah, suggest the Taliban are exploiting the institutionalisation of bacha bazi in police ranks for military gain. 
 
 Practically all of Uruzgan's 370 local and national police checkpoints have bachas -- some up to four -- who are illegally recruited not just for sexual companionship but also to bear arms, multiple officials said. 
 
 Some policemen, they said, demand bachas like a perk of the job, refusing to join outposts where they are not available. 
 
 Horrifying abuse at checkpoints makes the boys, many unpaid and unregistered, hungry for revenge and easy prey for Taliban recruitment -- often because there is no other escape from exploitative commanders. 
 
 Many who have tried to escape have been dragged back with trumped up charges of Taliban links, two senior provincial judges told AFP. 
 
 Boys have also spurred a deadly rivalry between policemen, with officials reporting incidents such as a public gunfight this year between two commanders in Gezab district as one of them angrily accused the other of "stealing" his bacha. 
 
 "To restore security in Uruzgan, we will first have to separate policemen from their bachas," one of the judges said. 
 
 "But if they are told to reform their ways, a common reply is: 'If you force me to abandon my boy lover, I will also abandon the checkpoint'. The Taliban are not blind to notice that this addiction is worse than opium." ||||| Exploiting the pedophilic boy play ‘bacha bazi’, the Taliban infiltrates the Afghan security forces to attack and kill police commanders. The tactics were revealed by several officials and survivors to AFP. 
 
 The ‘bacha bazi’ tradition dates back a long time, and is most widespread in the province of Uruzgan, central Afghanistan, where ‘bacha bereesh’ - or ‘boys without beards’ - are said to be quite popular with police. 
 
 "The Taliban are sending boys – beautiful boys, handsome boys – to penetrate checkpoints and kill, drug and poison policemen. They have figured out the biggest weakness of police forces: bacha bazi," former Uruzgan Police Chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai told AFP. 
 
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 There have been scores of such attacks over the past two years. Between January and April, at least six assaults of the kind were reported, with hundreds of policemen killed, security and judicial officials in the region told the agency, adding that "it's easier tackling suicide bombers than bacha attackers." 
 
 Plus, the bacha attackers have triggered “deep mistrust within police ranks,” Seddiqullah, a police commander at a checkpoint near the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt, said. 
 
 Survivors say the boys are used as honey traps. Twenty-one-year-old policeman Matiullah was the only one left alive in the attack in Dehrawud district last year. 
 
 Then, the attacker turned out to be the checkpoint chief’s sex slave, a teenager who went on a shooting spree, murdering seven servicemen – including the chief – in their sleep. Afterwards, he “brought the Taliban inside and poked all the bodies with rifle butts to see if anyone was alive. I pretended to be dead," Matiullah, who now works as a tailor, told AFP. 
 
 "As his Taliban accomplices gathered our weapons and ammunition, Zabihullah declared: 'Everyone is dead.'" 
 
 The practice of bacha bazi was prohibited by the Taliban from 1996-2001, and to this day, it denies using it, or child fighters, to stage attacks. 
 
 "We have a special mujahideen brigade for such operations - all grown men with beards," a Taliban spokesman told AFP. 
 
 However, survivors dispute that, as almost all of Uruzgan's 370 local and national checkpoints are said to have bachas, some of them up to four boys. Some policemen even refuse to work when there is no bacha available at the checkpoint, they added. 
 
 “If they are told to reform their ways, a common reply is: 'If you force me to abandon my boy lover, I will also abandon the checkpoint.' The Taliban are not too blind to notice that this addiction is worse than opium," one of the judges said. 
 
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 The abuse at the checkpoints could force the boys into seeking revenge, hence the possible Taliban recruitment. Many of the boys attempted to flee the abuse, but were brought back and have charges of Taliban connections against them, two top local judges told AFP. 
 
 Recruiting boys for sex services has been a long-standing practice in Afghanistan. In March, RT released a documentary about bacha boys, who shared their experience. 
 
 The boys should be 12, 13, or 15, they said, and said some boys could work until up to 25 years old. The bosses in the business usually find the boys at playgrounds and choose the poorest, as they are “the easiest to control.” 
 
 Even though the Afghan government officially banned bacha parties, "some people, who are commanders, and high-ranking people, are involved with the business," according to one of the ‘toy boys’, Japar. 
 
 In February, Pentagon launched an investigation into alleged abuse of boys by security forces in Afghanistan. US military frequently reported such events to the American top brass, but previously it led to next to no action. 
 
 Dan Quinn, a former special forces captain, told the New York Times last year that he had witnessed a few cases of abuse involving both boys and girls. He and Sergeant Charles Martland confronted an Afghan police commander accused of abducting and abusing a young boy, but the commander laughed in his face, Quinn said. So the US captain “picked him up and threw to the ground” - and was later relieved of his command for his troubles.
– The Taliban is using child sex slaves as Trojan Horses to destroy Afghanistan's police forces from within, AFP reports. "Bacha bazi" is an ancient custom of having sex with young boys, and it's rampant among police commanders, for whom "boys without beards" are "objects of lustful attraction." A judge calls the police force's use of young boys as sex slaves an "addiction worse than opium," with many officers more willing to give up policing than their boys. It's an addiction the Taliban has proved willing to exploit. "The Taliban are sending boys—beautiful boys, handsome boys—to penetrate checkpoints and kill, drug, and poison policemen," says a former police chief, who calls bacha bazi the "biggest weakness of police forces." Officials say the Taliban has killed hundreds of police officers in this way over the past two years. There were at least six such attacks between January and April alone. One former police officer recalls a young sex slave opening fire in the middle of the night, killing seven other officers. The boys—between the ages of 12 and 15—are often abducted from playgrounds to be sex slaves, the poorer the better, RT reports. Many of them see the Taliban as the only escape from their police abusers. Bacha bazi, which was banned under Taliban rule, is not seen as pedophilia or homosexuality, which is illegal in Afghanistan. The director of Child Soldiers International blames the practice partly on the limited access to women in Afghan society. The Pentagon launched an investigation in February after long ignoring reports from soldiers.