KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again.
Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
"I miss my parents, my mom and dad," Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name.
Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming a would-be bomber. "I have been detained for trying to commit a suicide attack," he says.
He says his recruiters told him it was his mission as a Muslim to kill British and American soldiers because they were killing Muslims. Video Watch teen say recruiters "cheated me" »
They told him that once he blew himself up he wouldn't die because God would save him for being a true Muslim.
Asked what he now thinks of Americans and Westerners, Shakirullah is calm, but quick in his response.
"I don't know. God knows what type of people they are, whether they are good or bad. I don't know them," he says.
Shakirullah now passes his hours in a cell block at a juvenile detention facility in Kabul. He is serving at least five years in detention. He is to be transferred to an adult prison in a couple of years, authorities say.
He hasn't heard from his family in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He tried to send them a letter through the International Committee of the Red Cross but is not sure it reached them.
"I don't know what they are thinking. They have no news of me," he says.
On this day, Shakirullah attends a rehabilitation class, easily lost in the crowd of boys with shaved heads. All of the children are convicted for various crimes, including theft, fighting and even murder.
Three boys like Shakirullah are here, all guilty of planning to kill themselves and others after being recruited by terrorist groups.
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