Let's Never Go Back To Our Past

Narrator: Abdul Raziq Rezaei

Victims: Abdullah and Abdul Karim

Time of the incident: 2001

The place of the incident: Dahan Kanak Village, Yakawlang District, Bamiyan Province

The name of the victims: Abdullah, my father, aged 45-47 years old. I don't remember the exact age of my father. And my uncle, Abdul Karim, he was 30-35 years old. They lived in Dahan Kanak Village, Yakawlang District. They were farmers.

My father was educated from mullahs at home, he could only read the Quran. Abdul Karim had attended Dehsur high school until the eighth grade. Due to riots and wars, he had left school. Both of them were married. My father had three sons: his eldest son is me, his second son is named Samad, and his third son is named Nader. My father had three daughters: his eldest daughter is named Hanifa, his second daughter is Sima, and his third is Soghara. My uncle Karim had four sons and daughters: his eldest son is Reza, his second son is Enayat, his eldest daughter is Laiqa, and his second daughter is Sabra. All were farmers and all lived in Dehne Kanak.

It was 2001 that the Taliban came and took Yakawlang. The war ended... Khalili's forces went to Chaman. There, they burned the villages and captured my father and another person named Ibrahim, and took them to the battle in Chahar Deh. The Taliban were defeated there and came to Dahan Kanak again. They brought my father and uncle back to the village, tied them back to back under the road, and fired on them, killing them.

When Taliban arrested my father, we fled to Punjab having no news about my father. People told me that my father was killed. Although it was dangerous to go to the area, we went and took the corpses of three martyrs with a small number of friends. We could not bury them in our ancestral cemetery, so we took him to Sar-e Kanak graveyard.

During the migration period, people were vigilant as to what was happening in Yakawlang. The houses and shops were burnt down and many people were killed.

My father's body remained under the sunshine [where he was killed] for a week; no one could go and bury him. When Taliban attacked Yakawlang, my father told me to take our family members to Panjab District. He said he would come after us. He stayed because of our livestock up in Qeshlaq. We could only save our lives, not the livestock. Unfortunately, we lost our father and every other thing we had in the village.

According to my cousin, four days after we left our village, my father was killed. As said, me, my younger brother Samad, and my cousin Mohammad Rahim went from Punjab to Sarma Qol during the night. At night, we took five more corpses from Sarma Qol. We went and transferred the bodies to Sar-e Kanak. The people of Sar-e Kanak cooperated with us. Thanks to them, may God protect them. With them, we buried the corpses.

We brought the family back when the Taliban attacked the American twin towers. It was September 11th. It was the beginning of the cold season. It had snowed once or twice. We went back home, but nothing remained; our houses were burnt. With empty hands, we started to rebuild our houses.

Everyone had psychological problems. We had no one, it's very difficult to talk about it. We can't tell you how it went. It was very difficult for people to live. I had lost a father and an uncle, and our economic situation was ruined. Our cattle and property were gone. We didn't have money and our situation was very bad. I personally took care of two families with many problems. I had to leave school as it is still my responsibility to take care of the two families.

Today, my uncle's family is living separately. We divided our land; I separated my uncle's land. By the grace of God, our agriculture product is good, not bad. I ended up having a lot of trouble because at that time, people did not trust anyone. Now, it is different. If needed, people will give us a loan. At that time, no one gave a single rupee to anyone else. Why could we not borrow some money? People used to say that the situation in Afghanistan is so bad, they may not be able to pay it back.

We had this difficult situation. I couldn't bear not to say it. It is very difficult for someone to say it. Those who had a better economic situation may have lived better, but I myself, who had two families on my shoulders and was empty-handed, someone who didn't have a single rupee, this is how I lived my life.

The little money that we had was in my father's pocket, which was burnt. They had holes drilled in it. It was completely destroyed. It was out of use. My mother has endured this situation until today, and today, thanks to the grace of God, our situation is good.

I was a child who did not understand anything about what to do. I went through that difficult situation alone. We struggled with a difficult life that no one can imagine. But some people are good, maybe they can. Before the incident, I had no responsibility. But once two families were shouldered by one person without a single rupee in his pocket, imagine for yourself what the situation was like. You asked me, and told you. I could not control myself not to say.

When my father was martyred, I didn't know about my uncle. People didn't tell me anything. I buried my father. We couldn't be bothered there again, so we went to Panjab. My friends told me that I should come back. I had a bad feeling, because my uncle's family was here in Panjab. As soon as he sent the message to "come once," I fell from the sky to the ground. I said what happened and he asked me again.

I went to Yakawlang again, to Sar Maqol Village, the only place I could go. People had fled to Sar Maqol. I went there again. I asked my friends about the situation, and they said that the situation was good but that they would go with me. They told me that my uncle had been captured. Well, we went. We gathered our friends and decided to find some elderly men and meet the Taliban who captured my uncle. When we came here, one of the friends said that the Taliban had captured my uncle, taken him from my village, and killed my uncle on a pass named Larasi. They said, "Go and take your martyr from there." The people of Sangardost - one of the local Taliban - gave us a soldier to guide us there. He showed us that my uncle's corpse had dried up. We took it to Dahan Kanak and buried him there. Ah, I wish they would had killed him [only], but they had cut off his hand, cut off from here (showing his elbow), and cut off his leg from the knee. We took him and buried him in our village.

By God, at that time, we had no idea what we were doing because we were children. We had no idea what the Taliban meant or what they were doing. We had no idea, they just said that the Taliban had come and killed people. Because we were children, we didn't feel, we didn't understand what "the Taliban" meant. We thought that Talib meant "student," not more than that, right? But when they came and set fire to the houses and killed the people, we thought that a human had not come, a savage had come. What were they doing to the innocent people? With the houses? No one had anything to do with the houses, but they destroyed and burned every single house.

Yes, my mother is alive. Thank God, my mother, it was my mother who brought us to this stage. Otherwise, we would have been a bunch of small kids and children. My uncle’s children were also small. My mother gave me an arm and said not to lose myself, be strong, and work hard. My mother supported us and kept telling us to be strong. The reality is that we worked hard, suffered a lot, and thank God we are seeing the results today.

I put myself in the place of my father; I left school, I sacrificed my wishes and wants for my brothers and my uncle's children. I supported my brothers and my uncle’s children to go to school. Thank God, they are now doing well with their education and lives.

My father was a normal, calm person. He never fought anybody in the village or with family members. He had a sound personality as he never shouted at me as his younger son, never used a bad word against me. He was a religious person. He used to awake us up to pray our prayers early in the morning and advised us to take fast.

I had no responsibility and didn’t think about life’s ups and downs. Everything was on his shoulders. I don't know where he earned the livelihood to earn what he would give us, the food we would eat, and the clothes we would wear. My uncle was young. At that time, our lands were not divided, only his house was separated, and he worked as a farmer with my father. Local Taliban were good people, some were Hazaras and Tajiks. But those who came out of Yakawlang, those Talibs do not want Islam at all, they were Wahhabis. These were outsider’s men.

There is nothing notable left from my father to put in the Afghanistan Memory and Dialogue Center. My father had a Quran and a watch. I have his watch with me now in my pocket and a tape recorder named 530, an old model 60-70 years old.

These are the only things left from my father. Nothing left from my uncle but a picture. The photo is a very old one. We enlarged it and put it on the wall, so he should not be forgotten and remain as part of our memory. In reality, we have very bad memories. We never return to our past, we had such a hard time in the past that I cried. We really have a very bitter past, not only for me, but for all the victims. For all the people of Yakawlang, Bamiyan and the central regions. We will never return to our past.

We are really happy to have something lasting for us in the museum. I'm happy and, you are welcome, you are all the light of our eyes who think about us and remember us and listen to our words and take them to higher levels. Thank you.