Afghan 'suicide vest girl' reveals family ordeal
An Afghan girl has told the BBC that her family forced her to attack a police checkpoint in Helmand province.
The girl, known as Spozhmai, said her brother and father had beaten her, ordering her to put on a suicide vest.
She was taken into protective custody in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, after an Afghan soldier spotted her wearing the vest last Monday.
Said to be about 10, she has appealed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to put her in a new home.
The girl is thought to be the sister of a prominent Taliban commander, who police say encouraged her to carry out the attack.
She told the BBC's Newsday programme that she had been scared to carry out the attack, but that her brother had promised only her targets would die.
She added that her father had ordered her to return home, but she refused to obey.
In her appeal to Karzai last week, the child said: "I won't go back there. God didn't make me to become a suicide bomber. I ask the president to put me in a good place."
The president has condemned the Taliban over the incident, but the group has denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
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