Funds from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage terrorism, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.
A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a militant recruitment network in Punjab.
The November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the U.S. consulate in Lahore, was based on discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during trips to Punjab.
It said those sources claimed that financial aid from Saudi and United Arab Emirates was coming from “missionary” and “charitable” organisations ostensibly with the direct support of those countries’ governments.
Militancy subsequently mushroomed in the region and militants moved to Pakistan’s northwest areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Since then there has been a growing nexus between militant groups there and in Punjab. In recent years militants have been carrying out suicide bombings in Pakistan, despite military offensives against their strongholds.
The network in Punjab reportedly exploited worsening poverty to indoctrinate children and ultimately send them to training camps, said the cable.
Saudi Arabia is seen as funding some of Pakistan’s religious seminaries which churn out young men eager for terrorism, posing a threat to the stability of the region.
“At these seminaries, children are denied contact with the outside world and taught sectarian extremism, and anti-Pakistan government philosophy,” said the cable.
It described how “families with multiple children” and “severe financial difficulties” were being exploited and recruited.
“The path following recruitment depends upon the age of the child involved. Younger children (between 8 and 12) seem to be favored,” said the cable.
Teachers in seminaries would assess the inclination of children “to engage in violence and acceptance of terrorism”.
“The initial success of establishing madrassas and mosques in these areas led to subsequent annual “donations” to these same clerics, originating in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” the cable stated.