Pakistan province bans toy guns

ISLAMABAD: A violence-plagued province in Pakistan has banned the sale of toy guns in an effort to reduce childrens' exposure to extremist tendencies, officials said on Wednesday.
The north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, near the Afghan border, has been at the forefront of the country's bloody battle against Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda for more than a decade.
Millions of toy guns are smuggled into the province from neighbouring China every year, adding to childrens' vulnerability to extremist tendencies, provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said.
"That's why we have decided to ban the sale," Ghani said, "initially in one key district and for the Muslim festival of Eid and then permanently."
Sales see a boost during the twice-yearly festival called Eid. The Eid festival that marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is scheduled for July 17 this year.
"We'll try to make sure no toy guns are sold on this Eid," Ghani said.
Replicas of assault rifles like AK-47s, G-3s, sub-machine guns and several kind of pistols are easily found in Pakistan's markets and available to children. Children as young as 5 are often seen running after each other with toy guns in hands on the streets.
In the violent north-west, a favourite game of children between the ages of 5 and 12 is to choreograph shootout scenes between soldiers and militants, recreating events they see on TV, or sometimes right in their neighbourhoods.
"This is a direct outcome of exposure to violence and availability of toy guns," said Sadia Abassi, a psychologist based in the north-western city of Peshawar.
"These kids will not hesitate if they have real arms." – dpa