More than 100 religious schools in Pakistan are engaged in brainwashing girls as young as five to women as old as 65 preparing them to "attain martyrdom" by fighting in Kashmir and elsewhere.
Brainwashing techniques, employed under the guise of Koranic teachings to produce an unlimited supply of male jehadis by Pakistani authorities or by extremist leaders to use them as human fodder, are now being applied to train women jehadis, the New York Times magazine reported.
The US publication, which earlier revealed the existence of 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan turning out jehadis, said more than 100 religious schools have been established for women in Pakistan, particularly in the North West Frontier Province.
These schools ostensibly teach the Koran to girls as young as five and women as old as 65 but interviews with some of them by the magazine showed that they are fired with enthusiasm for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and they too want to attain martyrdom somewhere.
When the girls in these institutions turn 15 or 16, marriages are arranged for them and they teach their children what they learnt in these institutions, remaining at home and shunning modern ways of life.
A striking picture is that of a young mother kissing her young son, holding him in her arms, but saying: "I named my son Osama because I want to make him a mujahid. We are not afraid. I am already asking my husband if I can go to Kashmir and train to fight."
The young mother said: "I will suicide-bomb. If there are 20 to 30 non-Muslims, there I will commit martyrdom. If America attacks, we will put our hands on the throats of Americans and kill them."
The magazine said that apparently there is no shortage of funds to establish such institutions in the name of religion where boys and girls are taught to hate "the infidels" who "occupy Muslim lands."
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