Mother who lost 4 sons to conflict says peace is her only wish

QALAT (Pajhwok): A resident of southern Zabul province, who lost her four sons in the same Taliban attack, has called on the warring parties to show mercy on civilians and stop the fighting.

Bibi Halima, whose four sons in police were killed, says may Allah (swt) keep away other mothers from weeping on their sons bodies and bring peace.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, the elderly woman said: “We were poor, when my husband died, I raised my children and when they became young, and they joined police forces in order to find a loaf of bread for the family.”

“Four years ago, four of my sons, along with two other policemen, were killed by a Taliban infiltrator at their security check-post on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Shahr-i-Safa district,” she remembered.

Based on unofficial statistics, there is no family left in Zabul who are safe from the ongoing war and who’s distant or close relative have not lost their lives, but some stories of the victims are heart-wrenching.

Bibi Halima currently lives with widows and grandchildren in a rented house in the Hazari area of Qalat City, the provincial capital.

“Every mother will cry on the death of her son if the fighting continues to rage like this, but I ask Allah (swt) to end these tragedies,” she said.

Although she does not know her age, her face and hard life shows she is above 70 years old.

According to Halima, she is currently caring for four widows and15 orphaned grandchildren, saying there was no man in her house to even buy groceries from the market.

“I tell my grandchildren all sorts of things to calm them down when they cry, sometime I tell them that their fathers had gone somewhere, they will come back, and I tell them that Allah (swt) will make you young then we will not have a hard life. But the nights and days of Eid are very hard when my grandchildren see the children in the neighborhood with their fathers, they come home and cry and tell me who killed my father? When did you burry him, but I have no answer” she explained.

The family has no breadwinner and currently it is suffering from a host of financial problems and sometimes even calls for alms.

Halima, sitting with orphans of her second son, said neighbors and relatives sometimes helped her, but her family was big and it was not possible to meet all needs.

She told Pajhwok that she had a life of dignity when her sons were alive, but the barbaric conflict ruined her family and stolen all happiness of her life.

Haleema said now her biggest wish was the end of the ongoing war and establishment of peace in the country so other mothers would not suffer like her.

She called on the warring parties to show mercy on their mothers and children, stop fighting and not destroy their own people.

“May Allah (swt) bring peace to Afghanistan, if peace does not come, no one will build our country, may Allah keep away other mothers from their sons grief and bring peace,” he remarked.

Halima's story is one example of the lives of thousands of mothers who have lost their sons and now awaiting an unknown fate.

Although such tragic incidents exist in every town and village, the war is still raging and the number of such tragedies is increasing day by day.

Halima, who received the bodies of her four young sons in one day, said that day all her hopes for life were shattered: “I did not see the faces of my martyred sons because they had been shot so badly in the faces and she could not look at them,” she recalled.

Zabul is one of the provinces where the Taliban launched their war against Afghan and international forces in 2003 before any other province in Afghanistan and the conflict in the province is still in full swing which results in killing and injuring of civilians.

sa/ma