[afpakwar]

IMHO the morality of suicide (or Kamikaze) bombing and the motivation of the bombers deserve to be discussed, and in greater earnest than is customary; but for reasons given below, not on the basis of these photographs.

To provide some background: these pcitures, allegedly taken on 8 September 2008 in Nowshera Cantt, were criculated according to one account by Zaid Hamid of Brasstacks in an email to a number of recipients:

"Dear brothers, sisters in faith,
Assalam alaikum Wa Rahmatullah.

He is a boy, hardly 15, illiterate and brain washed and trained to be a ruthless killing machine to carry out suicide attacks against citizens, State and armed forces of Pakistan.

Have a look at him closely. This is the face of a suicide bomber, caught before he could detonate.

Many like him are being trained and equipped in camps run by Baitullah mehsud, infected by Takfiri ideology, funded by RAW, protected by CIA and given shelter by Karzai.

This is the ruthless cocktail we are fighting today, trying to destabilize our beloved country. These "Hashashins" and "Kharjis" of today, who consider every Muslim as Murtid and Kafir are as big a fitna as NATO and crusaders attacking the Muslim world.

It is time, we know their faces, ideology and backers.

Wassalam and duago
Zaid Hamid"

Based, presumably, on this email these pictures (plus one more) were posted on 19 Sep 2008 by a Fauzan Sohail on his online news and entertainment blog, WeCite, with the following introductory background:

"We have been saying for a long time now that the so-called ‘Pakistani Taliban’ is a group of criminals and not Mujahideen and their agenda is suspicious. These exclusive pictures, released by BRASSTACKS today, provide the proof. This is the Nowshera boy who was arrested before he could pull the trigger on his suicide jacket..."

From here the pictures seem to have spread on the Internet. On 8 September 2008, APP carried one version of the story (that on the report of suspicious local residents, Nowshera police had arrested a boy), while on the same day ISPR issued a Press Release with an entirely different version of the story (that 2 JCOs "daringly" foiled a suicide bomber targetting a Security Forces convoy). On 9 September 2008, one, or the other, or both versions of the story were carried by the Daily Times, The News, The Dawn, Pakistan Observer, and Geo TV, among others. On 13 September, The News reported that:

Mir Janan, a 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber, arrested on Sunday, has revealed to a joint investigation team of the security forces and police that he was out to target the PAF Academy in Risalpur.

During the interrogation, Mir Janan said he was sent by Baitullah Mahsud, chief of the defunct Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), two months ago to target the top PAF training facility in Risalpur cantonment, but he failed twice due to the foolproof security arrangements there.

After his repeated failures to carry out the attack on the academy, a motorcyclist drove him towards the assigned target, but the bike developed a fault. Later, a Peshawar-based member of the Taliban provided him a new bike and a letter from Baitullah Mahsud. The letter promised the young Janan that, "angels will pick you for heavens immediately after pressing the button of the suicide jacket."

As best as I can tell, there was a complete news blackout after that, and no one knows the fate of the hapless boy.

As for the pictures, unfortunately Fauzan Sohail's link to Brasstacks (provided in the quote above) does not lead to the photographs he posted, so it is difficult to form a view on their credibility. Interestingly, the photographs posted above by "Thorosius" are significantly clearer than Fauzan's. It would be most helpful therefore if he would agree to reveal where he got his photographs from. This is becasue these photographs raise more questions than they answer:

1. We know nothing definite about their source; not even where they were taken ("Sorry, don't know where he was captured. Probably swat" or "the Nowshera boy"), when, by whom, and in what circumstances? According to Dawn, "The boy was near a church in the Cantonment area when he was apprehended."

2. It is hard to believe that there was a photographer handy to take these pictures of the "live" capture of this boy. Certainly the photographs are hard to reconcile with any of the published accounts. If not "live" then was it a re-enactment shortly, or much, after capture? If a re-enactment, then could it have been completely staged? After all, in this irregular war, as the US Army Field Manuals tell us, the "control of the narrative" (by propaganda, or any of its fancier new names) is far more important than the control of the physical terrain.

3. Look at the first picture: the boy's shirt is stuffed on the top of his suicide jacket. Without this bit of staging, the impact of the picture would have been quite the opposite: a small frightened boy, being held by three armed men, with anothr standing guard in the distance. So, was the kid walking around with his shirt stuffed into his suicide jacket at the top, when he was captured? If not, was it stuffed for him, before the picture was taken? If so, could the suicide jacket also have been provided and strapped to him by the same gentlemen?

4. Who were his target? Official accounts have shifted over time ("Security Forces convoy ," "cantonment area," and finally, "PAF Academy in Risalpur"). All the pictures show a completely deserted, fully secured area, without any sign of any vehicle or pedestrian. Was he going to blow up just himself? Where are all the people: the civilians or soldiers who are said to have noticed him? In most cases, law and order personnel have a hard time controlling crowds in public arrest situations, why haven't even two or three people gathered to oggle at this arrest?

No disrespect intended, but given the times, the credibility of these photographs is open to serious questions. I, for one, would hold my judgment.