Tragedy After Happiness: How Was Zainab Shot Dead?
A few meters away, a Taliban soldier opened fire on his car. It is how the lamp of Zainab’s life is turned off forever by moving the finger of the Taliban’s hand
By Ruhollah Taheri and Translated by Asadullah Jafari “Pezhman”
Kabul has beautiful nights. The various floodlights of the wedding halls have made the nights of this city more pleasant. However, Inside the city, there are different stories; the Stories are associated with the grieving and sadness of parents. I have come to sit and listen to the story of a family one of these nights; grief overcame their lives and will not leave their skirts forever in life. Nader Ali, the father of this family, is an older man who has lived with various problems. But now, the death of his young daughter has broken his back and power. He talks about his daughter - Zainab Jan, a girl who goes to her friend’s wedding with a happy and smiling face, But she returns home with a withered face in the coffin.
Zainab Abdullahi, her friend, her two sisters, and four children left the Ahmadian wedding hall in Dasht-e Barchi at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 13, 2022. They all drove by one car to Zainab’s house located in the Abbas Gholi region of the Kabul Darulman. It is night, and the roads of Kabul are adorned with floodlights. Zainab and her companions are happy in the car. Feelings and Traces of joy and happiness can be seen on their faces. However, this happiness does not last long. The sweet taste of the wedding becomes bitter to the palate of Zainab’s friends and sisters. The joys turn into pain and sorrow, which now squeezes Nader Ali’s throat and does not allow him to finish his sentences and speak to an interview with us. Nader Ali points to his son-in-law, Mohammad Sami, to lead the discussion.
Mohammad Sami is the husband of Zainab’s sister and the driver who takes Zainab and her six companions home from the wedding party. He says he stopped at the Mahtab Qala Bus Stop of Dasht-e-Barchi at the fort sight of the Taliban. According to him, The Taliban inspected his vehicle and allowed it to move. But a few meters away, a Taliban soldier opened fire on his car. It is how the lamp of Zainab’s life is turned off forever by moving the finger of the Taliban’s hand. According to Mohammad Sami, the bullets directly shot and tore Zainab’s heart. But the bullet did not hit the vehicle’s other occupants, women and children. “If bullet a lower space had hit in fuel tanker of vehicle, we would all be dead,” he added. Now, 32 hours after the incident, all the car occupants are in shock and do not know how to digest this tragedy and great sorrow. According to Nader Ali’s relatives, Zainab’s sister was hospitalized in hospital, and her mother fainted from time to time.
The story does not end here. At the same time, Taliban members deny firing on the car. Mohammad Sami says that after seeing Zainab, he got out of the car and went to the Taliban. “I stopped the car and ran towards the Taliban and said to them that you shot and killed the person. They pushed me back with blows, and I hit the rear window of my car, and the window broke. The Taliban said the woman herself had fainted. Because we fired in the air, not on her”. It is decided in the scene that Mohammad Sami will be taken Zainab to the hospital, and the Taliban will follow them. So, “When we arrived at Mohammad Ali Jinnah Hospital. The Taliban had not arrived there.” therefore, the Mohammad Ali Jinnah Hospital confirms Zainab’s death and reports to the Taliban Sixth Division in Kabul. According to Sami, a few moments later, the Taliban arrived at the hospital in two ranger vehicles from the sixth division. And they said Mahtab Qala Bus Stop is not their area of responsibility. The Taliban went to the site with Mohammad Sami and checked that there were no checkpoints there! The Taliban had left the event area. After witnesses, the Taliban who accompanied Mohammad Sami testified that members of the 13th checkpoints Taliban had shot at the women and children “by mistake.” However, the Taliban’s interior ministry has not yet commented on the mentioned event.
This is not the conclusion of the story. The death of every human being destroys other people’s lives as well. Zainab was not the only sister and daughter of anyone; she also had a fiancé. Abdul Majid Basharyar promised Zainab five months ago that he would spend the rest of his life with her. But now he has to live without Zainab with all her sadness forever. He and Zainab were determined to upgrade their education to doctoral levels. Basharyar says: “We had prepared the ground to go abroad to study for a master’s degree, But, what happened?”
Zainab Abdullahi was an employee of (Fenika Bank) and an economics graduate. She was the only breadwinner and hope for her elderly mother and father. Nader Ali - Zainab’s father - wants revenge for the perpetrators of his daughter’s murder. Still, he does not know how to spend the rest of his life without Zainab. I also wanted to talk with Zainab’s mother, But her mother was unconscious.
Aliakbar KhairKhawa has contributed to this report
P.S. This report article was translated from the Persian of SubheKabul Daily and updated here on February 19, 2024
