Pakistani Police Accuse Children Of Planting Bombs In Quetta

Police produce young children suspected of planting bombs to the media in Quetta on March 13.

QUETTA, Pakistan -- Pakistani police have arrested about a dozen children suspected of planting explosives for militants in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan Province.

Local police chief Mir Zubair Mahmood displayed the young boys to the media at a news conference on March 13.

Mahmood said the children came from poor families and were recruited by the United Baluch Army, a militant group based in Quetta.

The police chief said the children, between 10 and 16 years old, could more easily avoid suspicion and leave packages containing homemade bombs in markets, trash cans, and on routes used by security forces.

Mahmood also said some of the children had confessed to being involved in the January 10 bombing of a vehicle used by Paramilitary Frontier Corps.

The bomb blast killed two soldiers and injured nine civilians.

With reporting by AFP