A Few Minutes Later, They Brought in His Coffin

Narrator: Sakina (sister)

Victim: Navidullah Bahadori

Date of the incident: 23 July 2016

Location of the incident: Dehmazang, Kabul City

My brother Navidullah attended school until 6th grade in the village of Bidshaki, in Ghazni Province, Jighato District. We then moved to Kabul, where he enrolled in the Abdul Rahim Shahid School. Besides school, he worked as a tailor’s apprentice. He was well-mannered and everyone liked him. He was sociable and friendly. Following graduation from 12th grade, he took an exam at the Afghan Korea University, where he took computer classes for six months. Later, he started learning dental prosthetics at the Razi Institute. On the morning of the incident, he was at home and had breakfast at 8 am. He intended to join in the demonstration, but my mother forbade him, citing the dire security situation and a possible incident. On that day, all my cousins went to the university to take an exam.

Around noon, he took a shower, changed his clothes, and ate lunch. He told us he wanted to go to university, but we all knew the university was closed in the afternoon, and that he intended to go and participate in the demonstration. At approximately 2:36 pm, when the second explosion occurred, my cousin called him to ask where he was. Someone else answered his phone and asked my cousin how he was related to the owner of the phone. He responded, “I am his cousin.” The man had told him that Navid was injured and my cousin had to get to Aliabad hospital immediately. My brother was alive until he was taken to the hospital but while being transferred to the emergency room, he died. My cousins searched all the hospitals and checked all the wounded but did not find him among them. Since the wounded had been transferred from Aliabad hospital to other hospitals, and because we thought he was only wounded, we continued searching the Barchi and Darul-Aman hospitals until midnight. Still, we did not find him among the injured. My father and cousins visited the 400-bed hospital the next day (day after the incident). When they got there, they saw his photo installed on the entrance gate of the hospital, and thus they recognized and found him.

They called home to say they found Navid. We were all delighted and told ourselves, as the man had reported, Navid had been taken to the hospital. Maybe his hand was severely injured or amputated, but thank God, he was alive. We went to my mother to give her the good news, but a while later, they brought in his coffin. Navid was no longer alive and this left my mother and me alone with a world of sorrow and yearning. Since Navid’s martyrdom/death, my mother is always sick. She cries in solitude and has lost her tranquility. We also cry in the other room at night, so my mother does not see our sadness. Navid, my brother, always encouraged us to get an education. When he returned home from work and school, he would always read and help us do our assignments until late into the night. Now, his absence is intensely felt. I always miss him and will never forget memories of him.