KABUL: Afghanistan’s president has ordered a “thorough investigation” into institutionalised sexual abuse of children by police, after AFP revealed the Taliban are using child sex slaves to launch deadly insider attacks.

There has been international condemnation of paedophilic “bacha bazi” — literally “boy play” — which AFP found has been exploited by the Taliban to mount a series of Trojan Horse attacks over two years that have killed hundreds of policemen in the remote southern province of Uruzgan.

“The president has ordered a thorough investigation [in Uruzgan] and immediate action based on findings of the investigation,” the presidential palace said of Ashraf Ghani in a statement.

“Anyone, regardless of rank within the forces, found guilty will be prosecuted and punished in accordance and in full compliance of the Afghan laws and our international obligations,” the English language statement said.

The ancient custom of bacha bazi, one of the country’s worst human rights violations, sees young boys — sometimes dressed as women — recruited to police outposts for sexual companionship and to bear arms. It is deeply entrenched in Uruzgan, where police commanders, judges, government officials and survivors of such attacks told AFP that the Taliban are recruiting bacha bazi victims to attack their abusers.

The claims — strongly denied by the Taliban — expose child abuse by both parties in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict.

The presidential statement said there was “no place” in the Afghan establishment for abusers, adding it will do “whatever it takes” to punish them.

The announcement follows a flurry of international reaction to AFP’s report. In a letter last week to US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter, Congressman Duncan Hunter demanded a proactive American role to end bacha bazi in Afghan forces.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said bacha bazi is of “high concern” for the international community.

The Afghan interior ministry has said it is committed to institutional reforms, while acknowledging that bacha bazi within police ranks is a “serious crime”.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016