Eightth Part
Written by: Ismail Yaqobi
Since the cruelty and horror of the unforgettable Dashti Lily massacre are too much to be contained in a single part of this series, I decided to continue this series by recounting the bitter memories of one of the individuals who was present at this heartbreaking event and ultimately survived.
Witnessing the events, he recounts his story and that of his comrades after the betrayal by Dostum and allies as follows:
The eighth day of the blessed month of Ramadan in the year 1422 AH. It was during evening prayer that we were brought from the city of Mazar-e Sharif along the road toward Balkh district in the middle of the Zini Kala area.
At this location, all the prisoners who had been transferred from the Yergenck area of Kunduz province were deboarded. Here, large cargo trucks carrying big, long containers were already waiting for us.
The prisoners were thrown into a single container, two or three containers at a time. When all the prisoners were thrown into the containers and doors were closed, the air suddenly became sealed, and we faced a serious challenge of oxygen shortage for breathing. The prisoners cried and shouted.
I tried to keep the prisoners calm and started the story of the three men who were traveling on a way, it rained on them, and they took refuge in a mountain cave. Suddenly, a large stone fell over the entrance to the cave, and they were trapped there. They said among themselves, “Let’s see our deeds. Whatever deed we have done sincerely for the sake of Allah, let’s make it our intercessor so that Allah the Almighty will save us from this pit by the blessing of that good deed.”
Then each of them would present their good deed and use it as an intercessor to Allah Almighty, until Allah Almighty removed the stone from the mouth of that very cave with His complete power. When I started this conversation, I might have said two or three words that I didn’t understand myself anymore.
The next day, I woke up around 11 am. We were inside the container; I saw that the prisoners were piled on top of each other; some had been martyred, some were dying, and some had pulled off their shirts due to severe shortness of breath.
On the other hand, all the prisoners inside the containers were so thirsty that we were all unable to move. The container was dripping with sweat from the intense heat. The surviving prisoners were wiping their tongues with their sweat, hoping to quench their thirst.
Apparently, the vehicle carrying the prisoners had already reached its final stop, but they stopped the vehicles so that any surviving prisoners would also die. Around 3 p.m., the container was transported to the prison, and its doors was opened.
Including me, maybe only 15 people came out alive, and that too while we were completely immobile. They gave us a little water, then took us to the prison where many other prisoners had been brought before we arrived. The containers were filled with martyrs again and transported outside.
Later, we known that all the martyrs from the containers had been taken to the Dasht-e Layli and buried there in mass graves. It should be mentioned that in this great human tragedy, eighteen people from our group of 37 in total were martyred.
The Dasht-e Layli was not the end of the story; rather, for those who survived this crime, it was considered a transition from one stage to another, because after committing the Dasht-e Layli crime, Dostum and his allies inflicted the most severe physical and psychological torture on the survivors of this human tragedy.
To understand the depth of this bitter story, we will refer to the memory of one of the individuals who spent a period of their life in these c; they say:
On the date 9/9/1422 AH, which corresponds to 4/9/1380 SH, we were brought to the prison in the city of Sheberghan.
The mujahideen who survived the container disaster began a life full of difficulties here in prison. Their greatest torment was the problem of hunger. After four days, they began a small food distribution for the prisoners.
Prison rooms, which were normally built for only ten people each, now housed up to seventy-five or eighty prisoners. To all of this, they were only given one basin of rice to share among themselves.
In the early days, they distributed rice in the palms of their hands, and the Mujahideen would lick it. For almost twenty days, we couldn’t wash our hands, and for a long time, we performed our prayers with dry ablution; even until the time of our release from captivity, many prisoners were unable to sit or stand.
Due to weakness and inability, we performed prayers while sitting. Once, I was in the middle of praying when I collapsed from hunger. My eyes had lost their sight. The teeth of most prisoners were loose. Their legs had given out, and they had lost blood, with most of the prisoners losing half their body weight and facing dozens of other health problems.
With a little reflection on these bitter memories, we realize that while Dostum and his co-religionists called themselves mujahideen and chanted the slogan of jihad, they themselves abandoned the essence of jihad, which is defending the oppressed against the oppressor, and committed the most heinous crimes possible.
Truly, what kind of Islam and humanity is this that, in addition to betraying their covenant, does not even observe the most basic rights of their prisoners and treats them worse than animals, even tho they too are from this land and bear the name of Islam and Afghanistan.
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