'Hang on, I'm a nice infidel'
Updated on 13 February 2008
I've just been round to have a chat with a couple of suicide bombers. Well, you know, Kabul's that kind of a town.
Charming fellas both. Although when I asked one if he would kill me if we were alone in a room and he had a gun -- he seemed to hesitate just a bit too long before claiming:
"Well probably not. I mean not all infidels are bad although they are against Islam. You can live side by side with some of them."
"But hang on - I'm a nice infidel," I said, unsure of whether it was strictly true.
"OK," he answered, "maybe not then."
'He'd kill you even without the gun,' the guard said. Then he laughed. A lot.
And it's that "maybe" which has been hanging around my head ever since. As he was escorted away from the interview, one of the prison guards turned to me and said:
"He'd kill you even without the gun," he said. Then laughed. A lot.
With guards like that who needs enemies.
Nobody is quite sure what will happen to them. Although President Karzai did famously return one 13 year-old would-be-self-detonator to his village in Pakistan as a gesture.
A smart political move no doubt - but it hasn't stopped them coming across the border from Pakistan.
So the gallows could yet await these two.
They've arrested nearly 50 in the past six months. And there is no lack of new recruits coming over. Both of these lads conformed to the stereotype. Both were clearly illiterate and suggestible young men.
The difference is this. While one of the pair obviously regretted deeply what had happened, the other was not so sure.
He still felt the instant stairway to heaven would be a possible option in future and that Allah had simply denied him this time around.
Watch Alex's film tonight on Channel 4 News
