London: Almost two years after they were defeated, the Taleban leadership is recruiting thousands of extremists popularly called "sarbaz" - those who care nothing for their own lives - to fight the government of Mohammad Karzai and the US-led forces in Afghanistan, reports said.

The Taleban, who were supposedly vanquished in December 2001 when American and Northern Alliance forces drove them from power, are reviving and fighting back across Southern Afghanistan.

According to the report from Kandahar region of Afghanistan, students from religious seminaries across the border in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan have joined the war within Afghanistan, and are ready to take part in suicide missions, the report in 'The Telegraph' said.

The scarcity of reconstruction work in Afghanistan's Southern regions, where people lack healthcare, education or even wells for drinking water, has boosted the Taleban's recruitment drive, the report said.

While hundreds have already joined the fight, Taleban leaders claim that many more religious students from Pakistan are ready to go.

Hundreds of tribesmen were acting as the eyes and ears for the movement, supplying information on the movement of government forces. Some of the volunteer children were as young as 12. Quoting Mohammed Amin, 30-year-old leader of a Taleban group, the report said Taleban fighters had managed to join the Afghan government Army, where they acted as spies and saboteurs.

PTI