UN highlights child recruitment by extremists
Maoist rebels have taken to abducting and indoctrinating children, the UN says in a new report which also scrutinises child abuse by the Pakistan-based TTP and other armed groups across the region. By Chandan Das for Khabar South Asia in Jamshedpur Maoist insurgents in northern India have resorted to using children as support staff, according to a UN report that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted to the Security Council this month. Schoolgirls ride a bicycle past police patrolling a road near Lalgarh, West Bengal. According to a UN report, Maoist insurgents in India are recruiting child combatants as support staff. [Parth Sanyal/Reuters] The report, "Children and Armed Conflict", found that minors are being recruited from Chhattisgarh and adjoining states such as Jharkhand and Odisha. It cited a December 2011 Indian government report, which found that Maoists "were recruiting and indoctrinating chi