They Were Shot in Their Chests

Narrator: Asadullah Fayzi

Victim: Baqijan Fayzi

Time of the incident: 1997

The place of the incident: Qorachin Village, Chaharbulak District, Mazar-e-Sharif

Type of incident: Gunshot

My father's name was Baqijan Fayzi. He was almost 38-years-old. He was young at the time of the accident. He had married when he was so young. I was about four or five years old when he died; I was very small. One day, I was standing at the courtyard door. I noticed that as he walked down the alley with another person, a hat was on his head, although he normally didn't wear a hat. I didn't recognize him. I said, "Hey! Hey! Who are you?" He was ahead of me. When he looked, I saw that he was my father. He smiled at me. This was very interesting to me.

My father's birthplace is Qorachin Village, Chaharbolak District, Balkh Province. As a farmer, he was busy with agriculture and peasantry.

He studied in school up to the six and seventh grades, but he had not finished school. He had two children, one girl and one boy. I was older than my sister. I am now 24-years-old. My sister, Fatima, is two years younger than me, she is twenty-two-years-old. She has finished her studies and now she is a schoolteacher. She has also studied up to the fourteenth grade.

The attack happened near our village named Qizilqala. It was Taliban’s last attack, after which the Taliban fell. I think it was 1996 or 1997.

The incident was in the morning, it was eight or nine o'clock. The Taliban came to our village and gathered the people of the village in the mosque. My father told us that he should go too. They took my father and my uncle. After three days, both of them were martyred in Qazal Qala Village as I mentioned. They were serving the people in the village. They were the elders of the village. Taliban killed them anyway. Taliban committed genocide in their first round of attack. They killed so many people in their first attack.

His family started looking for him but did not find him. In the village, someone has seen these two people who had been killed, so they told their families. My cousins, though they were small, had run away from home. They had hide in a plain. My father had told me not to go to the mosque because he was worried that I would be taken by the Taliban, but I said, "No, let them take me too." I was not afraid.

They took them that morning. I remember my father's uncle, who was an elderly person. Taliban tied his hands behind his back and carried him towards the mosque. I did not go to the mosque myself because I was small. When they were taken away, the women were crying. My grandmother was there, my mother was there, but the Taliban did not release anyone.

It was rumored that the people were tied up in a car, dragged, and later shot with bullets. The people who were from our village said so; they had seen it. There were no other witnesses except for them. They had tied my father to a car and dragged him to Qizilqala, a neighboring village. It is relatively far; half an hour away. My father's body was found by the local people. They informed us that they had found two bodies and asked if they were ours. They told me to tell someone to come and take the bodies. My uncle went to the site and recognized the corpses, so he brought them back.

They were taken and thrown in a desert. The day after they were taken, my uncle started asking about them. Where are they? Are they detained? Are they alive? Later, some people informed us that there were two bodies in the desert. My uncle went there and yes, found their bodies. They had been shot in their chests and shoulders. Their faces were destroyed. There were many wounds and scratches on their bodies. My uncle's son’s forehead was badly split. The Taliban had beaten them a lot.

Upon hearing the news, everyone was unwell. My uncle fell unconscious for a few hours out of shock. My father's death changed our lives a lot. We faced many problems. We went through a lot of hardships. Life is really hard without a father. After my father, my uncle and my mother tried to keep the family together. My mother is a seamstress, she has been sewing ever since. The Taliban will do anything for their own benefit.

They don't have much to do with other ethnicities. Charbulok Village is resided by different ethnicities, it is mixed, but they used to harass Hazara people there a lot. They asked them for bread, money, weapons. They used to say to my father, "You are the leader of the Hazara people, you have many weapons. Give us weapons." How many weapons did they give if they had them? The Taliban would come again and search themselves. Because of having [and not having] weapons, they were beaten a lot.

Yes, the responsibility of financing the house was on my father's shoulders. My grandfather was there and my uncle was there. My grandfather was an elderly man. My father was responsible to support the household financially. We all lived in the same house together. Yes, my aunt was there too. Her and her husband lived together with us. The number of family members was big, about twenty, twenty-five people in total. Now there are 9 of us. After my father, my uncles and my mother now support the family. We still live in the same house in our village. That is our own house.

Oh, I was badly affected by the incident. I got a low spirit after it. This made me personally very weak. My mother... my mother suffered a lot, for a long time she was... For now, life is good. It is normal. It's been two years that I'm married and other family members were separated from us. My uncle and his family are now in Mazar Sharif. My cousins (my mother’s brothers) are here. They are almost at the same place as us; our houses are side-by-side.

Currently, there is no war in our village. Because our village is close to Chaharbulak District - just twenty minutes away - Taliban come to our village but don’t go further. Taliban often attack from this side and the government shoots them back. A month ago, Taliban took all other villages. Only our village was left. In our village, there was a government base, but they left after the other villages were captured. Taliban come periodically, once or twice a week, and the government does not.

Although the government is close (we can see them from the village), they don't fight as much as they did in the past and don’t come to our village. Taliban take tithes and zakat from local people. Tithes is about wheat. From ten bushels of wheat, they will take one bushel. From twenty bushels, they will take two bushels. Everyone gives. If someone doesn't give, he will be punished. Taliban announced that people must wait for them to come and count the bushels of their harvest, so that the Taliban can take some right away.

Yes, there are schools. Girls go to school. The school is in our village. The girls are up to 9th grade. They say their teachers should be women. Girls were not going to school for a while when Taliban came; the schools were off for a few days. After that, school resumed.

There were many people who left their jobs in government offices due to fear of the Taliban in this district. Even the cleaners left their duties due to fear. They didn't go to the office anymore. There were a few more soldiers from our own village, they were scared because there have been so many fights. Many people were killed in the war. Soldiers managed to take a letter from the Taliban, it was a guarantee that they would not be soldiers anymore, they could go and work in their village. Although they are no longer soldiers, they could not come to their village to see their families.

There were national police present to ensure the security of Qora Chin Village. In addition to police, there were militia (called ARBAKI: local armed men) supported by the government. Arbakis were harassing people and stealing people’s property. I didn't see it myself, but people of the village say so. They have many stories. According to one story, people stopped a man on his motorcycle one night. While their faces were covered, they took away all his valuables. The Taliban is back; Arbakis don't do those things. Arbakis are also completely gone, our area has been completely cleared. It is only the district center, which is under the control of the government.

The Taliban are from the neighbouring villages. Some are from our village too. Local Talib accompany the outsiders, they are together. No, they don't harass civilians.

Our wish is peace. Since the government is there in the center, they don't want war either. Their people and many of their soldiers were martyred, they were killed. Other police bases were taken by the Taliban.

If the government fights with the Taliban, it is good to clean up our areas. Make it peaceful and calm, so that everyone can do their jobs and go to school. Our biggest wish is that there will be peace and prosperity for our homeland. Many people in Chaharbulak are complaining about the insecurity. They are tired of it. One day, people should be able to take care of their business and land properly. My father was a good-natured person. Even now, everyone who comes praises my father a lot. No, my grandmother has passed away. We buried my father in a cemetery near the village, yes, in the village of Qorah Chin.