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Bearing Witness to Taliban Horror by Sayed Sadat http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D5QCQOO/r... via @amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D5QCQOO/r...BEARING WITNESS TO TALIBAN HORROR, NONFICTION,BY Sayed Sadat
They would have described the identity of their enemies and paid some of the money in advance. All the professional killers would have to do was find the required person travelling on their route, separate him from the rest of the passengers, take him to their hideout and then slaughter him. Those on the road between Kabul and Pakistan had a better opportunity for this business of death than in any other part of the country because there were large numbers of people travelling through their territory.
It was the main route and most of the people had their families living on both sides of the border. The highway was busy all the time and almost 99percent of the people would pass through the same way, allowing the killers to easily spot the targeted person and finish their task.
One of those professional killers was the commander Zardad of the Hizbe Islami, Gulbadin Hikmatyar Group. His real name was Faryadi Sarwar Zardad and was born to a poor Pashtoon family. He joined the Hekmatyar group during the war against Russia and fought as a Mujahid. He belonged to Hezbe Islamic Gulbadin Hikmatyar group, a district in Kabul and later this place became his strong hold where he established his checkpoint named Sarubi blocking the major route heading from Jalalabad into Kabul, that commonly robbed, abducted and killed travellers.
Zardad was known for his brutality and was called the Human assassinator, having killed thousands of innocent travellers. He used to loot people, rape women and kills those who are unwilling to cooperate. Many stories of his brutality are still told by people. It was not only Zardad but all members of his group were ruthless and savage.
He had a man in his Militia named Abdullah Shah who was known as the Human Dog. This man was kept in chains in a cave and would attack people just like a dog. He was commanded by his master Zardad and would bite people, beat them and kill them. Zardad would not listen to anyone’s appeal for mercy. He was so heartless that he would double or triple the amount people had to pay him for mercy.
He had such a strong networking that he had several checkpoints recognised by passengers before their vehicles could reach their main point. His brutality could be more read about referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faryadi_....
Its highlights the truth about this Commander who terrified the whole human world with only one need and that was money.
He could not tolerate anyone who hesitated to fulfil his requirements. For such people, he gave out punishments that were inhumane. He would get people beaten brutally regardless of their gender or age and surrender them to his human dog Abdullah Shah.
Security was the main concern of the drivers and travellers in that area, as no one was sure what would happen at any moment regardless of whether they would reach their destinations safe or not. Would they be able to see their families again? No one knew what would make those brutal, ruthless people more savage and they could lose their lives for no reason.
The fear of death would surround them until they reached their homes and were among their families. But even then many of them still did not feel safe because danger was everywhere, not only in the form of Zardad but in others who acted like him. There were large numbers of other people who also created hardship for the innocents using different means. The threat was not only to the lives of people, but also to their goods and honour, especially if women were travelling with them.
Bearing Witness North & South Magazine
December, 2011.
Auckland New Zealand.
After 32 years in exile, Afghani refugee Sayed Sadat is telling his story through both words and pictures.
Sayed Sadat was a 14-year-old Afghani schoolboy when his father and two uncles were thrown in jail after a Communist faction seized control of the country in 1979 in a military coup. A year later, the Soviet Union invaded.
During the Mujahideen rebellion which followed, three of Sadat’s school friends were murdered and he witnessed violence that would scar him for the rest of his life.
When the authorities discovered Sadat’s father (who had been a high-ranking officer during the reign of King Zahir Shah and president Dawood Khan) had escaped to Pakistan, word reached Sadat that they were planning to take him hostage. So in November 1980, he and a classmate, Haytullah, fled their homes in the small town of Wardak, near Kabul.
It took the pair two weeks to cross the Spin Ghar mountain range and reach the border with Pakistan, where Sadat joined his father. Haytullah, however, was not so lucky – he was murdered the following spring when he returned to Afghanistan. Over the next four years, Sadat made the treacherous journey seven more times as he tried unsuccessfully to reunite his family
My dad was the only member of my family that was with me when I arrived to Pakistan. Due to the dangerous circumstances our family was in, we had to leave everyone behind in Afghanistan because they were not able to handle the same speed as me and my dad for such a long distance. We lived together for more than four years and during that period I travelled back and forth more than six times despite the dangers and risks I had to overcome in order to see my family back in Afghanistan. The journey was approximately twelve to fourteen days long but it the length was dependant on the speed, weather conditions and the situation during that specific period of time such as governmental army controlling the pathway from Pakistan to Afghanistan. We were under direct bombardment and snipers attack as we made our way into Afghanistan but we survived this horrific situation a number of times by having luck on our side. After much anticipation, my dad was finally able to manage rescuing our family by hiring animals such as camels, donkeys and horses which at the time were a used a transport. His mission was a success and my family was able to manage their way out of Afghanistan by taking on a long journey. Therefore, my five sisters, two brothers and mother had now begun a fresh start and start living in exile.
The tragic news of my father passing away reached to me as I was making my way to New Zealand. At that time of grief I was in Bangkok, Thailand. I was deeply saddened by this news and felt a great sense of grief and loneliness. I went to visit my country, family and also my father’s grave after spending seven years in New Zealand. In that short period of time I experienced something that was extremely tragic. My only intention for going back to my country was to spend some quality time with my family and enjoy the atmosphere but that was all changed overnight. This was due to my only brother who was still back in Afghanistan with his seven children and wife was shot by a group of inhumane people. They had somehow made their way inside the house where my brother was with his two young sons, and shot him dead for no particular reason. My two nephews witnessed this traumatizing scene and were crying helplessly unable to save their fathers life. To make matters worse this took place on the night of my daughter’s wedding ceremony. In that those short few hours, people’s lives were changed forever and would never be the same. Maybe this was part of my destiny and that happiness was not meant to be as I had planned. Therefore, I came to New Zealand with more sorrows and sadness than happiness and wonderful memories.
A decade after arriving in New Zealand as a refugee, the 48-year-old still has nightmares and suffers from Fibromyalgia, Cardiac, stress-induced very poor health. As he opens the door to the west Auckland home where he lives with his five children, his face is smiling but his eyes are haunted. “I look healthy, but inside I’m broken,” he says.
Three years ago, during a prolonged spell of unemployment, the devout Muslim sat down and began painting. “That first day I had no brush but I had a small tube of coloured paint so I started painting anyway.”
Since then, the self-taught artist has amassed more than 400 drawings, watercolours, oil, acrylic and pastels. He also embroiders and makes his own frames and canvases. “Painting helps me heal… temporarily,” he says.
Inside his home, paintings cover every conceivable surface, leaning up against the wall or piled high on tables. Subjects vary from portraits of Western pop-culture figures and landscapes to abstracts and more; even an art deco style couple dancing cheek-to-cheek. Afghani subjects are prominent too; particularly lost cultural artifacts and destroyed landmarks. “Here is a portrait of a 500-year-old Buddha which was destroyed by the Taliban,” he says, gesturing towards a painting on the floor.
Pictures of Kabul are painted from memory or photographs. Disturbing Pakistani newspaper clippings that show mutilated bodies have inspired other paintings depicting violence at the hands of the Communists, Mujahideen and Taliban.
The horror’s Sadat has experienced has also compelled him to write. Refugee Stories, a new book published by AUT’s Centre for Refugee Education in November, includes two of his stories and selected paintings, alongside stories from other local refugees.
The manuscript for his first book, Way to Kabul, has also been accepted by an Australian publisher and is due out early next year, chronicling Sadat’s return to Afghanistan in 2007 during the American rules by putting Mr. Karzai who is still the president of Afghanistan.
Sadat is already halfway through two other manuscripts which he hopes to have published one day. “In life I have seen more than enough heartache,” he says. “This story I’ve witnessed, I need to tell it. I hid for years and didn’t want to share my story. Now I want the world to know why I came to New Zealand and why I live here. I have spent 32 years in exile.”
NATASHA FRANCOIS
Way to Kabul Preview on Wordpress.comAs I looked around, I found myself feeling the same sense of devastation as the others and asked myself, “Is this really life”? But found no answer. I had been going through the same situation since I was quite young. It all started when this deadly revolution began in Afghanistan. It had not only affected me but also the life of millions of other Afghanis. It not only shook me but it also shook the whole world. We lost millions of innocent lives but no one could give a satisfactory explanation. I suffered throughout my life for no reason or fault. I looked at myself carefully again to sort out the difference between myself and others, but no, we were all the same. This was not the life of my choice; I was not allowed to live by my own choice.
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http://way2kabul.wordpress.com/2012/1...
Please watch my video presentation of my book Way to Kabul. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wUefd...
WAY TO KABUL preview, Shared by Sd, Sadat
These killers told everyone to practice Jihad (sacrificing one’s life for being on the right path and raising one’s voice against injustice). They would train others for this cause but wouldn't sacrifice their own lives or their own child. They would use innocent children and teenagers as suicide bombers for massive killings, but wouldn't tie the suicide bomber jacket around their own waists. These were the double standards of those who led thousands of people. May ALLAH save us all from such two-faced creatures.
http://way2kabul.wordpress.com/2012/1...
Review: Way to KabulUser Review - Sayed Sadat - Goodreads
I am the author of this book I would like to share my book readers reviews with my goodreaders friend and followers.
Way to Kabul Sayed Sadat 2 Reviews Zeus Publications,
12/01/2011 - 132 pages
Way to KabulSayed Sadat
3 Reviews
Zeus Publications, 12/01/2011 - 132 pages
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User Review
having read the book, feel terribly agrieved, sharing the sense of the terrible misfortune, to be born in that hate filled region.
Religion has been found to be twisted and misused to suit their personal agenda, which is not the aim of that religion, by which they swear.
Here is a factual recount of the hapless times, an young life, torn to bits, by forces on which he,
Sayed Sadat, the author of this book, had no control or say!
The family is disturbed and ruined, higher eduction denied, the youth running from cover and reality.
forced to flee from his motherland, blood relatives and the family, to seek shelter and succour in an alien land, due to causes not being the result of his own faults, but compelled, abused and tormented by factors unleashed in the name of religion.
every person has to read the book, as it opens up to your view and senses the horrendous condition of this third world, their despair, distress, anguish & agony.
Syed sadat, apparently from the prose of the book seemingly not much educated, so his english is slightly pathetic, but
the narration does not lack the sarcasm, the irony of the situation, highlighting the heinous & barbaric attitudes of the tribe and the commune.
I request the writer to write more and more, till he wakes up his people to the reality!
'inshallah' !!
Sudarshan Rao.
http://books.google.co.nz/books/about...
Way to KabulSayed Sadat
3 Reviews
Zeus Publications, 12/01/2011 - 132 pages
What people are saying - Write a review
User Review
I recommend all my facebook friends to read this newly launched novel,Way to Kabul.I read the story and it tells about the horrific experience of a man who struggles to comes to terms about his life and the hardships faced by him and his family.It highlights about the daily incidents and happenings that we hear today.Its a very touching story and If you want to know about the real life and innocent killings and torturing,grab a copy from your nearest bookshop or order online.You wont regret buying this novel,Take my words for it.
Naaz S,
Selwyn Foundation,
New Zealand.
http://books.google.co.nz/books/about...
http://amazon.it/dp/B00D5QCQOO/ref=cm... … … via @amazon