A Taliban spokesman has denied the groups involvement in the attempted suicide attack that was supposed to be carried out by a 10-year-old girl who was sent by her brother, an alleged "Taliban commander," the Associated Press reported.
The Afghanistan Interior Ministry said they were detaining the girl, identified only as Spozhmai, on Monday and that she told officials her brother, who she says is a Taliban leader, asked her to go to a checkpoint and ask for a ride to the next town, according to the AP.
Qari Yousef, the Taliban spokesman denied any involvement in the attack, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai said it was "un-Islamic," the AP reported.
The Afghan police were also detaining the girls father and are searching for her brother, named Zahir, who had taken the explosives vest and escaped after his sister would not go through with the attack, according to the AP.
"The guy named Zahir had the suicide vest and escaped, but she was still there and when our commander of the battalion heard her voice, they surrounded the area and brought this girl to their base, and we all heard her story on how she was forced into this action," Col. Hamidullah Sediqi Sediqi said, the AP reported.
After the girl was detained, she told police she had initially agreed to her brothers request to go to a southern Helmand checkpoint and ask a deputy commander for a ride to the the Kunar province nearby, according to the AP.
Her brother then placed the vest on her body and told her "to spend the night here and leave in the morning," but she told him she would no longer go, according to the AP.
"I said I won't go, then he took off the vest and tried to convince me that they (police) will die and I will remain alive," Spozhmai said, according to the AP.
