He Was a De-Miner

Narrator: Ahmad (nephew)

Victim: Nabi

Time of the incident: 2011

Place of the incident: Kohsan District, Herat Province

My name is Ahmed. I am twenty-years-old. I live in Kamaneh, Kohsan District. I work at customs at the port of Islam Qala. I get 100-200 AFN per day.

Nabi was my uncle. He was 31-years-old. He was martyred in 2014. He was a de-miner. He normally left at four o'clock in the morning and came back at two o'clock in the afternoon. One morning, while going to the demining site, he and his colleagues were ambushed by the Taliban. It was seven o'clock when they fired on them. He and his 5 colleagues were killed while others were taken alive, though they may have been killed later.

He was an employee of a de-mining agency. They were going to explore the land. They would find mines and mark them, then report the location to an engineer, then the team would going to the site and explode the mine.

We got the news at eight o'clock and went there at nine. The driver said that there was a war over the mine cleaners. We saw five or six people lying there. Mr. Behrouz's brother was also with them. He had been shot in his stomach, right here, God forgive him.

We put the body in the back of the car and brought it back to the house. I went there. Two of our uncles also came. They live in Kamanah, their families live there. My uncle’s economic condition is good, but not that good. He has two children, one is five-years-old and the other one is two-years-old.

The demining agency has given food and non-food commodities to my uncle’s family. His wife is young, about 20-years-old, and has two children. She lives with her two children. One of her children is five-years-old and one is two-years-old. My uncle was illiterate. He did not go to school.

We went to the field ourselves and picked him up. Several others had been killed there. The corpses were in different places. One in the car, one next to the car, etc. Among them, my uncle was shot dead. Many didn't even look hurt. We went there and took him into the back of the car. We thought he was alive. God forgive him. He was martyred. We put him in the back of our car and brought him to his house, that's it.

It was also the holy month of Ramadan. Taliban had been after the director of the demining agency, and they took him away. Taliban asked him to pay, but he didn't give them any money. Then five or six people were killed like this. These people were earning a living through this job, he used to get 15,000 AFN per month.

There is nothing else to say. I don’t have any message... Look, our business is ruined, there is no work in Afghanistan, nothing. I say that someone should help us with something.

I will do whatever I can for my uncle. My uncle served us a lot. I will do anything for him, for his children, for his family. My uncle was very kind to us. He used to advise us to do good things, respect the elders and children, and get an education. I told him that I can’t go to school, I have to work because my father was killed on the way to Iran.

My father used to go to Iran to work. He was killed on the way to Iran. I was small, I don't remember how he was killed. Our family knows about it, they say he was killed inside Iran. Iranian soldiers killed him. He had gone illegally and had nothing, no travel documents.

Now, thank God, it's fine. We work. My mother is with us. We are two brothers, I am her elder son and I have a younger brother. My mother was 20-22 years old when my father was killed. She has never married again. She stayed with us. We go to work and my mother is at home taking care of things at home. Thank God, the rest is fine with us. I have this intention that God will help me to serve her in my life.