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Taliban rapes young men and blackmails them to carry out terror acts, says former fighter

Pakistani Taliban fighters, who were arrested by Afghan border police, stand during a presentation of seized weapons and equipment to the media in Kabul, Afghanistan January 5, 2016. | Reuters/Omar Sobhani

A former Taliban fighter has revealed that the Islamic terror group has been raping young men and filming the acts on camera in order to blackmail them into carrying out terror attacks.

A young Taliban fighter who goes by the name of Haibatullah, who was captured by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) Special Forces, detailed his experience with the jihadist group in an interview with Fox News.

Haibatullah recounted that a friend convinced him to travel to the Pakistan border city of Quetta, which is known to be a haven for Taliban members, to become one of the group's fighters.

"He said that the Americans and foreigners do whatever they want to our country. And we must fight the foreigners," he said, recounting how his friend managed to convince him.

For two months, he was trained to use guns and other weapons, and he was taught to recite Quranic verses to convince him that it was "mandatory to use jihad against foreigners" and "fight the infidels."

When a mullah ordered him to prepare to be a suicide bomber, Haibatullah refused, claiming that he "was not ready." He said that he was repeatedly told to engage in sexual acts with the mullah, but he declined.

One day, he woke up in a state of confusion and excruciating pain, with his legs covered in blood, some time after he was called by the mullah.

"After that," he narrated "He told me that he filmed the rape and if I didn't follow his orders and bomb myself, he would reveal the tape," he went on to say.

Haibatullah, who was 17 at the time, said that he was raped two more times after that. He noted that the mullah had called his parents to inform them that he has joined the Taliban. The young man suspects that others have also been drugged and raped, but none of them had disclosed their stories to the public.

An NDS official said that Haibatullah's story is almost certainly true and not unique. He noted that the Taliban has been drugging victims and filming their rapes in order to blackmail them into committing terrorist acts.

The official said that the mullahs generally separate the "most vulnerable minds" for such acts, and that they also saw an increase on detainees who have been injected with large amounts of human growth hormone.

In November, Haibatullah received an order to attack the German Consulate in the northern province of Mazar-e-Sharif. Twenty civilians died and more than 120 were injured in the attack, but no members of the German Consulate staff were harmed.

Haibatullah said that he is still not sure whether having Americans and other NATO forces in Afghanistan is a "good or bad thing," but he now realized that his acts in Mazar-e-Shariff was a mistake. "I am 100 percent regretful," he said.

The young man is currently awaiting trial and will be transferred to another detention facility. An NDS official has noted that terrorists who are found guilty typically receives anything from a 20-year sentence to life imprisonment or even execution, depending on their crimes.

The Taliban and the Islamic State have used similar tactics when it comes to forcing people into jihad. ISIS is known for indoctrinating young children with radical ideology and training them to carry out shootings and beheadings.