UN report says militant groups using children to spread terror in India's Kashmir and Maoist regions

The annual report of the UN Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, covering the January-December 2017 period, said more than 8000 children were recruited by militant groups globally.

The report also said that conflicts also took the lives of over 10,000 children during the aforementioned period.

In India, it said, three cases of children's recruitment by such outfits were recorded.

"One case was attributed to Jaish-e-Mohammed and two to Hizbul Mujahideen," it said, adding that clashes in places such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir witnessed active participation from these recruited children.

Apart from the JeM and HM, Naxalites also featured on the UN list as top recruiters.

"Naxalites reportedly resorted to the use of a lottery system to conscript children in Jharkhand," it mentioned.

The UN said that like India, the situation in Pakistan also remains grave. Several footage of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan training young boys and girls to wield the gun have already done the rounds, forcing human rights activists and security groups to condemn the issue.

In war-torn Iraq, over 1000 children have been locked up by government forces, due to their involvement with the Islamic State terror group.

The report said that children are often used as spies, thus enabling these groups to gather valuable information about their enemies.