Taliban Captures, Brutalizes Boys for Jihad
HOLMES: Boys as young as 13 years old brainwashed and trained to kill. Pakistan says it's rescued about a dozen of them from the Taliban, but as CNN's Stan Grant reports from Mingora, Pakistan, these boys are anything but free.</s>STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look into the eyes of these boys. Pakistan's military says these are the lost souls of the Taliban's terror. The boys tell me they were stolen from their families, abused, beaten and brainwashed by the Taliban. "The first day, they beat us. Then they made us exercise. They made us run and told us, you will wage jihad. "They told us that the army is against the Koran, it is against Islam. They said, wage jihad against them." The Pakistan military gave CNN limited access to these boys. The army says they rescued them during heavy fighting with the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Their faces are covered, their identities protected because of the possibility of retribution. The youngest is only 13. We can't independently verify their stories, but doctors say they have no doubt about their trauma. The boys themselves each tell me how they were kidnapped by the Taliban. "I was coming from the shop to my house. I had some stuff with me. They said, put your stuff in the car. They said, should we drop you in the village or in the square? When we reached the village, I said, I want to get off here. But they blindfolded me and put a hand on my mouth." Other boys say they were snatched working in the fields. In militant camps, they say they were being trained to be suicide bombers, to do the Taliban's killing. (on camera): Would you kill for God? (voice-over): Yes, he says. In the right circumstances or the wrong circumstances, would they kill?</s>DR. FARIHA PERACHA, PSYCHIATRIST: They would kill them, too, and they wouldn't even feel it.</s>GRANT (on camera): They'd kill, and they wouldn't feel it?</s>PERACHA: They probably wouldn't have an empathetic response to what has happened.</s>GRANT: These boys have been so badly damaged by this experience, psychiatrists say it's difficult to know exactly how they are feeling. The doctors say some are psychotic, some psychopathic, and some pose a very real risk.</s>PERACHA: His statement to the army was that if he had a suicide jacket, that he would have committed suicide. And if he had a Kalashnikov, he would have fired.</s>GRANT (voice-over): Dr. Fariha tells army chiefs they are just the tip of the iceberg. After talking to the boys, she believes there are possibly hundreds of others just like them. (on camera): Are the boys brainwashed?</s>PERACHA: Yes, of course they are. They're brainwashed against you and me.</s>GRANT (voice-over): The army hopes the boys will one day be able to be rehabilitated and returned to their families, but the doctor says they should be under close surveillance at least for the next decade.</s>PERACHA: These children, except for two, don't certainly give me any indication that they will be rehabilitated. So, if they're going to gauge their future on the perspective of today or where they are, that future doesn't look very rosy, does it?</s>GRANT: But Dr. Fariha does not blame the boys. They are the innocent victims, she says. All they are left with, they told me, are the voices in their heads, voices of the Taliban commanding them to kill. Stan Grant, CNN, Mingora, Pakistan.