New Delhi

The Afghan government is planning to send back children who had been detained for their links with the Taliban to their homes after they complete an ongoing education programme that seeks to change their minds and de-radicalize them.

This was stated by Rahmatullah Andar, a spokesman for the Afghan National Security council, in response to Human rights bodies criticism of arrest of children who were seen as collaborators of the Taliban.

He said the “Taliban were recruiting children and using them for their war. The Afghan government detains children who could have been harmed, used in war, or targeted by terrorist attacks, and will be returned to their families after training programs.”

The Council strongly denied that the children were arrested or tortured.

NGP Rahmatullah Andar, a spokesman for the Afghan National Security council, has said that the Taliban were recruiting children and using them for their war. The Afghan government detains children who could have been harmed, used in war, or targeted by “terrorist” attacks, and will be returned to their families after training programs, according to him.

NGOs had called on the Afghan government to free children detained for allegedly collaborating with insurgent groups in the country and to work with the United Nations and donor countries to bring them back into the community.

Hundreds of Afghan children are being held on charges of complicity with the Taliban, the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

A spokesman for the Afghanistan Prison Administration, Safiullah Jalalzai, has also denied that children were being tortured in prison, saying that about 700 children under the age of 18 were being held on various charges across the country and were being held in correctional facilities.

According to a UN Security Council report released in June, Human Rights Watch found that the children were being held in military bases in violation of Afghan law.