United Nations: Terrorist groups operating in Kashmir and Maoists groups elsewhere have recruited children as fighters, according to a report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The annual report on children and armed conflict for 2018 released on Tuesday also said that children continued to be killed or injured in operations by the security forces in Kashmir and in areas of Maoist activity.
It noted that there were reports of sexual violence against girls by security forces in Kashmir citing the Kathua rape case. Guterres, however, also welcomed "the government's measures to provide protection to children, notably through the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights."
"I encourage the government to put in place prevention and accountability measures to hold perpetrators of grave violations to account in view of ending and preventing grave violations against children," he added.
In Kashmir, the report said, "Five children, some as young as 14, were reportedly recruited by militant groups, including by Hizbul Mujahideen (two) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (one).
The two other children joined Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and were reportedly killed in an encounter with the government forces on December 9." There were reports of "systematic recruitment" of children by Maoists, the report said.
It said that there were child casualties from security forces actions against Maoists in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha.
Giving examples, the report said that on April 22 last year eight children were reportedly killed during an anti-Maoist operation by district-level special forces in the district of Garhchiroli, of Maharashtra, in which at least 40 Maoists were killed.
In Kashmir "31 children between the ages of 7 and 17 were allegedly killed, including during government armed forces operations" and "at least 150 children, some as young as one, were reportedly injured, mostly by pellet bullets used by the security forces," it said.
By Arul Louis
