Khaliq Ebrahimi
Translated by M. Rezaie
Arif Shadab is a well-known local singer who has spent more than 9 months in Taliban’s terrible prisons. He was eventually freed after paying a huge sum of money to the Taliban.
Shadab is sad contrary to his artistic fame and the meaning of his name. He is sad after several years of loss of Delshad Baba, his close friend. It is not easy for him to talk about the Taliban’s terrible prisons, tortures, describing the scene when Delshad was killed.
His music office, where the fans of local Hazara music commute, is decorated with a portrait of Delshad and Dambora, a local music instrument. Shadab now and then looks at Delashd’s picture and or at the damboras hanging on the wall. He talks consecutively. There is no much time. A customer may come or one of Delshad’s music students may come and stop our talking.
On 16 June, 2015, in one of the last days of spring, Delshad and Shadab were going to their beithplace after they had a music concert in Ghazni. They had spent the night in Ghzni city. They had left the city in the morning, and were on the way in Qrabagh Dasht with fout other passenger on a passenger vehicle. They reached to a Taliban’s check point near Zard Alu area where its more residents are Hazaras.
When their vehicle approached the checkpoint, one of the four armed Taliban men, wearing a mask, approached the passengers without saying something or asking a question. Then he talked on talki walki sayin in Pashto “They are the same”. Following that, they took off one of the passengers from the car and took him to another vehicle and brought a passenger from that vehicle to ours and placed him beside Shadab. One of the masked men sat on the driver’s seat and started driving.
After going a while on Zard Alu road, he changed the direction towards other villages. When they were far from the residential area, the driver stooped the vehicle and got off the passengers in a pit. And then some other men, and riding on motor cycles and wearing masks, arrived. They tore the cloth into pieces and tied the hands of the passengers to their backs. Then put them on the vehicle and covered them with a blanket.
The noise of the bullets, shepherds, enthusiasm of the children, showed the fighters were talking their five hostages through villages. Shadab says, “It was a tough day. We did not know where they wanted to take us and what would happen to us.” They stopped in a valley. And then lined up the hostages whose hands were tied up
It a scene of killing!
It was familiar to Aref. He had watched a video showing some hazara hostages in Baluchistan of Pakistan, with tied hands and lined up and then shot dead. The hostages were thirsty, and they asked for some water. There was no water, but the kidnappers brought a water melon, which the driver had bought for his children, and then broke the water melon and gave each hostage some pieces with their dirty hands. The armed men did not kill the hostages and moved again.
It was about evening and they reached to a village and went to a house with one room; It was a mosque. There were a lot of armed men, wearing long hair and moustache. The armed men collected the cell phones and placed them in separate plastic bags and wrote their specifications on them. There was no need for investigations; because Taliban had already full information about the hostages including Delshad and Shadab.
Delshad’s phone was not with him. One of the Taliban fighters slapped on his face several times. He showed where the mobile phone was. Taliban brought Shadab’s phone and opened it. The armed man spalped Shadab on the face again. There was a photo of Delshad with Ramazan bashardost, the Memebr of the National Assembly, and there was also another photo of Delshad, showing him posing with an American gun. The hostages asked about their crime and why they had been kidnapped. A Taliban Mawlawi told them, they wanted to exchange the hostages with Taliban’s prisoners with some of Taliban prisioners imprisoned by Habib commander in Jaghori.
They brought some chains the other day. Then they tied up the puffy hands of the hostages and locked them. Then tied up the chains together. And then placed some masks on the head of the hostages. Then they moved with the same passenger vehicle. It was not clear where they were going but they were driving so fast. Shadab says, “When the vehicle jumped, our heads hit the ceiling and then fall of the roof.”
They stooped somewhere and then got off the hostages and moved them to a nearby. “They will kill all of us here”, Delshad said to his companions. One of of the other hostages said, no they will not kill us. Maybe the tire is punctured and they want to change it. It was two days that they had no water and bread and their hands were tied up all the time. They had no contacts with their families in the last two days. They moved again. It was not clear what was the time and where they were.
Shadab says they reached to somewhere as a hill. The car could not move. They tried once more but it did not work and then the armed said take off the hostages and open their hands. The hostages moved while an armed man was watching them. At this moment, Delshad told Shadab that he could not wait more and he would attack the armed man and the other hostages must help him. The other four hostages tried to make him to change his mind, hoping they may be freed.
On the top of the hill, when the vehicle and motor cyclists arrived, there was a quarrel among the Taliban armed men and then somebody call them to keep calm. They decided to move. The four hostages got on the vehicle and Delshad delayed. The Taliban fighter kick him with leg and Delshad fell of the ground. Delshad got up and hit the Taliban armed man and grabbed his gun. “Delshad was only firing but he could not aim.” Aref said.
The Taliban armed man got up and embraced Delshad but, Delshad was firing yet. Everyone was lying on the ground. The Taliban member hit Delshad and the gun fell on the ground. “When the firing ended, we saw heshmatullah, one of the hostages, was injured seriously. Delshad surrendered and the filed court was held. The head of the kidnappers told Delshad, he has been suspicious to Delshad from the beginning and had guessed he was a dangerous person. The he mentioned Delshad’s photo posing with a gun and also his photo with Bashrdost. The he directly shot on the forehead of Delshad and he fell of the ground. One of the other Taliban members shot fire as much as he could and he killed the injured hostage. Then he cut off the ears of the injure person who was killed to give them to their commander.
Delshad’s life was over. It is not clear whether someone buried Delshad and Heshmat. Such a strange death of an artist; a singer who was well-known and well respected among his people in Jaghori district. He was an innovative artist and could gain the respect of the people through his innovations and breaking the traditions. “Jaghori was where many well-known artists could not hold a music concert but, Delshad rose and fought against them and then held concerts in many villages.
Two of the hostages remained on the hill. Yasin and Shadab were shocked by the brutal killings. The Taliban kidnappers took them and they reached to another valley by the night. It was an abandoned house where the reblles used it as their stronghold. The faces changed and the people changed as well. The kidnappers who had brought them from Ghazni were no more here. The passed the night without having anything. And the chains of the hostages were locked with the big columns located in the middle of the house.
On the third day, the sound of motorcyclists who arrived there was another sign of warning to them. They had heard Mawlawi had come to behead the hostages. Who wanted to be beheaded first? Shadab volunteered but, was kicked off on the forehead. The dark world. “The Indidel Shiite”, “Don’t try to be smarter.” Mawlawi will come, and there is a court here. But it does not investigate the hostages and ask who was Delshad. Shadab says he was a popular singer. Then the Taliban armed men grabs the hair of Shadab, and puts the knife on his throat. “Tell us who was Delshad. Why did he have a gun? Why did he have a photo with Bashardost, the representative of the National Assembly?
Mawlawi leaves the room, pledging all the 3 hostages will be freed in 10 days conditioned that habib commander exchanges the Taliban prisoners with the hostages. However, it took 9 months and 3 days. Tolerating the tortures of Taliban was very hard and they continually changed; Taliban members from Russia, Uzbekistan, Chechenia and Arab jihadist. Being a Shiite Muslim, means to be eligible for any insults, mental and spiritual tortures.
When Shadab reaches to this part of the sad story, it feels if he feels all the pains and takes a breath. He drinks a glass of water and continues saying the other two hostages; one of the was a driver and the other one was an ordinary person, but he was an experienced person. He had worked in Iran’s stone factories and had illegally travelled several times. But I had no such experience and was well respected among the people; I was alienated. We were not only hostages; It looked we were in a concentration camp. We brought water for the Taliban armed men, washed their clothes, and gathered wood from the desert with bare foot.
After passing several days, the Taliban armed were certain the hostages could not escape. The they opened their hands and feet. They could go to the spring watched by an armed man and fetch water. They could not envision any positive perspective. “When the big Mawlawi came, the treatment of the Taliban changed with the hostages. And when Mawlawi left the area, The Taliban resumed torturing them. They tortured us for being a member of Shiite Muslims.”
After living in a valley for two months, where there was nobody but Taliban, Taliban took two hostages who were with Shadab. Now Shadab was alone. After two days the hostages returned. They told Shadab Taliban had taken them from the same place where Delshad was killed. Taliban had taken the hostages to talk to their families on the phone and do what Taliban order them. “Someone phones you, do what they want.” The Taliban’s demand was clear; they wanted money. And the families of the hostages had told them everything was ready.
What would happen to Shadab? They told Shadab. Your mother look for you in the region. Your wife is in Kabul. But your brothers do not cooperate and they do not want to pay the amount of the money the Taliban have demanded. Shadab was disappointed. He decided to escape and one day went to the top of the hill. There was no village and there were hills far as he could see. Then he refuted to hostage house. He was tortured two times. Then he decided to suicide but failed. Before the kitchen knife could tore his chest, Yousuf had rescued prevented him of killing himself.
Taliban changed their place after noticing such attempts. They were taken to a place where it was very far from where they brought water. Shadab made another decision. He talked with the Taliban Mawlawi. He said if being a Shiite Muslim means being an unbeliever, he could change his religion. Taliban brought the Quran, and he recited it. Taliban told to themselves these people recite the Quran better than us. Then how they are infidels. Anyhow, he was purified. They participated in the congregational prayer as Sunnis do. “Before that, when we washed the dishes, Taliban smoked a bush in order to purify the dishes.” Shadab said.
It was eight months they were taken as hostages by Taliban. One day a passerby who seemed an influential person, notices the hostages in the Valley. Then he attempts to meet the Taliban Mawlawi. The Taliban fighters do not connect him with the communication device. He insists so much and finally Taliban connect him to their Mawlawi. Mawlawi wanted money. Shadab notices this from their communication. Mawlawi first demands one $ million. The he reduces it to $500,000. The influencial person continues communications and Mawlai finally demands $65,000.
Based on this agreement, they let the hostages to contact their families, conditional to ride on motorcycles and go through deserts and mountains to a remote place. If the motorcycle is punctured, they must have carried the motorcycles for hours. What a sad fate and loneliness! Such an expenditure was a huge sum of money from any perspective for Delshad as a singer and also for Yasin and Yousuf, but they paid it. Eventually, this sad story ended to happiness on 8 February, 2016. The hostages were released. Their hands and feet were safe; what their families did not expect it. Because they were told that Taliban had cut off the hands of Sahab.
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