In a horrifying first, Taliban ready to recruit women for suicide bomber squads in army

By Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha

New Delhi, Jan 5: The new rulers of Afghanistan have formally announced the formation of a "suicide bomber brigade" which will ironically have the first unit of women "fighters" recruited by the Taliban, who did not allow girls to attend school and have banned women from work and education.

In a picture of the brigade office shared by credible journalists, a new board in Pashto, reads: Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Badri Corps, Suicide attackers unit.

Officials of the Taliban regime confirmed that the regime has created a special battalion of suicide attackers to be part of their army.

"Suicide battalion will be part of the Badri Corps and will be active under Defence Ministry," Khaama Press of Afghanistan reported quoting Zabiullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson of the Taliban. Mujahid also said that the women suicide bombers will be recruited in the unit "based on the needs."

Taliban to include suicide bombers in their army

The head of the Suicide Bomber Battalion is Qari Zakir, the expert of the Haqqani Network

This will be the first unit of women "fighters" recruited by the Taliban who did not allow girls to attend school and banned women from work and education.

The Taliban regime has said that women cannot go back to classrooms as they do not have enough money to hire female teachers. They have also clamped strict restrictions on the movement of women who are not allowed to venture out of their homes without a male relative escorting them. However, they appear to have no hesitation when it comes to recruiting them for killing missions.

According to the Taliban, the unit of suicide bombers will be used to counter "external" threats.

Over the last few months, the Sunni Pashtun group has been recruiting hundreds of fighters from various madrasas based in Pakistan and these fighters are being trained by the Badri Battalion.

The Taliban call their Badri 313 battalion an "elite" force which was raised by the UN designated terror organisation Haqqani Network which is headed by the Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani who is among the most wanted terrorists by the US with a bounty of $10 million.

According to intelligence experts, it was Haqqani who "introduce" suicide bombers in the Taliban force and responsible for some deadly suicide bombing on Indian and US missions and officials of previous governments in Afghanistan.

After becoming the Interior Minister of the Taliban regime in September last year, the first official order of Sirajuddin Haqqani was to declare suicide bombers as "martyrs" and "heroes of Islam and the homeland". Sirajuddin Haqqani had honoured his suicide bombers at an official function at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul - the same hotel was attacked by his suicide bombers in 2011. Sirajuddin thanked the families of "martyred" suicide bombers and told them they should be proud of being families of "the Mujahideen and the martyrs," and promised to look after the families of suicide bombers.

In October, last year, Sirajuddin deployed hundreds of his suicide bombers at the Afghanistan and Tajikistan border amid the growing tension between the two countries.

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