An Afghan military checkpoint on the outskirts of Tarin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province (AFP Photo/RATEB NOORI) 
 
 The Taliban are using child sex slaves to mount crippling insider attacks on police in southern Afghanistan, exploiting the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi" -- paedophilic boy play -- to infiltrate security ranks, multiple officials and survivors of such assaults told AFP. The ancient custom is prevalent across Afghanistan, but nowhere does it seem as entrenched as in the province of Uruzgan, where "bacha bereesh" -- or boys without beards -- widely become objects of lustful attraction for powerful police commanders. "The Taliban are sending boys -- beautiful boys, handsome boys -- to penetrate checkpoints and kill, drug and poison policemen," said Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai, who was Uruzgan's police chief until he was removed in a security reshuffle in April amid worsening violence. They have figured out the biggest weakness of police forces: bacha bazi," former Uruzgan Police Chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai told AFP. Between January and April, at least six assaults of the kind were reported, with hundreds of policemen killed, security and judicial officials in the region told the agency, adding that "it's easier tackling suicide bombers than bacha attackers." Plus, the bacha attackers have triggered “deep mistrust within police ranks,” Seddiqullah, a police commander at a checkpoint near the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt, said. The insurgents are using boys as honey traps, said 21-year-old Matiullah, a policeman who was the only survivor from an insider attack in Dehrawud district in spring last year. Then, the attacker turned out to be the checkpoint chief’s sex slave, a teenager who went on a shooting spree, murdering seven servicemen – including the chief – in their sleep. Afterwards, he “brought the Taliban inside and poked all the bodies with rifle butts to see if anyone was alive. I pretended to be dead," said Matiullah, who now works as a tailor, pointing out a gash on his forehead. "As his Taliban accomplices gathered our weapons and ammunition, Zabihullah declared: 'Everyone is dead.'" - 'Addiction' to boys - 
 
 The Taliban, who banned bacha bazi during their 1996-2001 rule, roundly denied deploying any underage boys for insider attacks. "We have a special mujahideen brigade for such operations -- all grown men with beards," a Taliban spokesman told AFP. Practically all of Uruzgan's 370 local and national police checkpoints have bachas -- some up to four -- who are illegally recruited not just for sexual companionship but also to bear arms, multiple officials said. "But if they are told to reform their ways, a common reply is: 'If you force me to abandon my boy lover, I will also abandon the checkpoint'. The Taliban are not too blind to notice that this addiction is worse than opium," one of the judges said. Horrifying abuse at checkpoints makes the boys, many unpaid and unregistered, hungry for revenge and easy prey for Taliban recruitment -- often because there is no other escape from exploitative commanders. Many of the boys attempted to flee the abuse, but were brought back and have charges of Taliban connections against them, two top local judges told AFP.
– The Taliban is using child sex slaves as Trojan Horses to destroy Afghanistan's police forces from within, AFP reports. "Bacha bazi" is an ancient custom of having sex with young boys, and it's rampant among police commanders, for whom "boys without beards" are "objects of lustful attraction." A judge calls the police force's use of young boys as sex slaves an "addiction worse than opium," with many officers more willing to give up policing than their boys. It's an addiction the Taliban has proved willing to exploit. "The Taliban are sending boys—beautiful boys, handsome boys—to penetrate checkpoints and kill, drug, and poison policemen," says a former police chief, who calls bacha bazi the "biggest weakness of police forces." Officials say the Taliban has killed hundreds of police officers in this way over the past two years. There were at least six such attacks between January and April alone. One former police officer recalls a young sex slave opening fire in the middle of the night, killing seven other officers. The boys—between the ages of 12 and 15—are often abducted from playgrounds to be sex slaves, the poorer the better, RT reports. Many of them see the Taliban as the only escape from their police abusers. Bacha bazi, which was banned under Taliban rule, is not seen as pedophilia or homosexuality, which is illegal in Afghanistan. The director of Child Soldiers International blames the practice partly on the limited access to women in Afghan society. The Pentagon launched an investigation in February after long ignoring reports from soldiers.