KABUL, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - A 14-year-old boy who says he was groomed as a suicide bomber in a Pakistani religious school has handed himself in to the Afghan national security services, a security service statement said on Monday.

The statement said the boy, Gulam Mohammad, had been trained to make explosives and perform terrorist attacks in a madrassa in the Pakistani town of Miranshah in restive North Waziristan. The area, which borders Afghanistan, is a virtual no-go area for Pakistani government forces.

The trainee terrorist said he was one of a group of 20 boys, all aged under 17, who were taught to carry out suicide attacks on the territory of Afghanistan. He says he originally crossed the border into Pakistan from the eastern Afghani province of Khost without the knowledge of his parents.

After spending some time at the Fazl ul-Rahman school, Gulam Mohammad said, he escaped and returned to Khost, where he handed himself over to the authorities.

The Taliban radical Islamic group, ousted from power in Afghanistan after a U.S.-led military operation in 2001, has stepped up operations over the past year with an increase in suicide and other attacks.