An explosion in a remote Afghan village changes the life of an entire family forever

Eleven members of the Mirza Gul family, 10 of them children, gathered around a strange object lying on the floor outside their home. It was 6 am on April 29. The night before, the Taliban clashed in bitter fighting with government soldiers near the village. Two of the children carried the UFO inside the house, and one of the children, named Jalil, aged 16, realized that it was a dangerous thing, a rocket did not explode during the battle the night before. He tried to take him away from them, but this body fell and exploded during their struggle with Jalil. It was a tough day, even by the standards of Afghanistan's long war.

By night, four people had been killed in the hospital, including Jalil, who had tried to save them all. One of the girls, Marwa, four years old, lost her twin sister Safavi and their mother, Berikhna, who were close by, cooking firewood. One of our six-year-old nephews was also killed in the explosion.

Pre-traumatic incident

The Mirza Gul family spent the night of April 28 without being blinded by the sound of bullets, rocket explosions and the whirling of guns outside their home. The long-time caretaker of the extended family, fearing that his 24-member family would suffer badly, had no one left alive until morning, but the children were not afraid. They used the sounds of explosions and war in their village, Said Tuba. In eastern Afghanistan.

By six in the morning, the fighting had stopped and some children were beginning to make their way in dry wheat fields to school. Suddenly, one of them found something that looked beautiful on the face, green in the size of the police baton, carried him and went home to see him.

The story of what happened next varies from one child to another. After nearly 12 children gathered around the body, which was originally an RPG, exploded in the middle of the children as it fell to the ground, Mirza Gul, 60, , The sound of the explosion half a mile when he was driving his tractor, the explosion turned into a cloud of dust outside his home.

Children victims of conflict

After 17 years of war between the Taliban and Afghan forces backed by foreign troops, violence has been on a steady pace, with fighters fighting for the October 20-21 legislative elections killing scores of people. Three days before that, the fighters spent nearly all of Kandahar's leadership in an almost imminent attack on US warlord General Austin S. Miller. Civilians have paid a heavy price in this years-long conflict, with many killed by improvised explosive devices, suicide bombings or air raids. Of the more than 8050 non-combatants who have been killed or wounded so far this year, according to UN reports, 337 people have died of unexploded ordnance left on the battlefield, 90 percent of whom are children.

Among them were members of the Mirza Gul family, who were surrounded by an unexploded RPG, with shrapnel from their toes to the thighs. Five of them lost parts of their legs, two lost most of these parts, and three children, and an adult with them, lost their lives before reaching the hospital. The question is who is responsible, whether they are the soldiers or the fighters. Gul was not exactly sure, and for the victims they feel no difference about who is responsible.

In 2008, Mirza Gul moved his family from a neighboring area controlled by the Taliban to this village so that his children could attend school. "An eight-year-old boy was carrying weapons and wearing bullet-proof belts," he said, walking outside his home in May. He feared that if these boys did not leave, his children would fall under the control of the fighters.

By 2014, the war was back in place, and their village, located in the Sard Rhode region, was the land of a highway controlled by the Taliban-controlled government and Montenegro, named because snow never falls.

That year, international forces handed over responsibility for the country's security to the Afghan government and began chasing Afghan fighters stationed on the highway. Local elders appealed to the two sides to stay away from the village houses, and the fighters agreed, but nothing changed.

On April 29, the seven children who survived the RPG explosion - all from the Mirza Gul family - arrived at the Nangarhar regional hospital in Jalalabad at 7 am. "The muscles and tendons were hanging from their legs," said Bilal Sayed Mekhil, an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital. "Their injuries were so great that there was no cure except amputation to stop the bleeding," he said.

Marwa (four years), who killed her mother and twin sister in the blast, lost part of her right leg. (Nine years), Bashir (nine years), lost his left leg from under the knee, and his twin brother Abdul Rashid lost both legs from under the knee. Shafiqullah, 12, lost his legs, which were amputated above the knee. Four of these children are the sons of Mirza Gul, and Aman is his grandson. For a month, Mirza Gul slept on the floor of the wing where his children were being treated. His granddaughter and niece remained upstairs in the women's suite. Mirza Gul was moving from bed to mattress in an attempt to calm the children, whose screams continued to circulate inside the hospital during the treatment of their wounds.

Slow days

The days passed slowly and their wounds began to heal, and Mirza Gul brought games from the bazaar for children to play in their hospital beds. Shafikullah was keen not to retreat from the study. Eventually, it was time to leave the hospital. Abdul Rashid was the last to leave for his home on May 31, where he happily spoke to his twin brother, "We are coming now."

After leaving the hospital, the extended family regularly traveled by taxi to the ICRC's orthopedic center in Jalalabad to learn how to use crutches and artificial limbs. By August, they were provided with artificial limbs, and each pair of these limbs comes with sneakers. The head of the ICRC's orthopedic program, Alberto Cairo, says it is "very exceptional" to see many wounded from one family. Since then, the seven individuals have artificial limbs, some donated by a non-governmental organization. "Since they have legs to walk, they are happier, and they eat more than they did before they were installed," says Mirza Gul.

They continued their training during the fall, and they studied together in the morning and played outside in the afternoon. These children now realize that their education is becoming more important than ever. "Without education, there is nothing," says Mirza Gul.

Fighting ebbed

Immediately after this incident, the village elders told the Taliban what had happened, and that is why the fighting around the village houses has since ebbed, but it has not stopped completely. Two months after the bombing of the Mirza Gul family, an Afghan army team blew up a rocket similar to that of the Khel family who fell directly behind their house. Before leaving, Mirza Gul returned from a place where the team was watching. In a way to the village.

• After 17 years of war between the Taliban and Afghan forces backed by foreign troops, violence has been on a steady pace, with fighters fighting for the October 20-21 parliamentary elections killing scores of people.