A group of children believed to be involved in bombings in Quetta were arrested during a targeted operation here on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference, Quetta CCPO Zubair Mehmood said the children were between the ages of 10 and 16 and were used to place bombs and explosives at crowded sites of Quetta. The CCPO revealed that the children were employed by banned outfits and were paid Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per job.
“Police arrested 11 children after an encounter in the suburbs of Quetta last night”, Mehmood said, adding all teenagers belonged to extremely poor and downtrodden families.
He said eight militants, belonging to a Baloch separatists group, managed to flee during the operation.
“Arrested teenagers have confessed to involvement in more than one dozen bomb explosions”, Mehmood said.
He said the children had admitted to their involvement in Mezan Chowk blast, which left more than a dozen people including three frontier corps personnel dead.
Mehmood said police seized anti personnel mines, explosives and other arms and ammunitions from children’s possessions.
Eleven members of banned organisations were also arrested during the operation in the city.