Search the Internet          Tips  Links: Terror in America

Afghan refugees rue their country's misfortune

It was not just the residents of Kabul, Kandahar and the Jalalabad who spent a sleepless night as American missiles lit up the Afghan sky and added to the rubble that the war ravaged nation of Afghanistan is.

"I could not sleep the whole night," Ubaidullah, an Afghan refugee in New Delhi, said.

Many like Ubaidullah, living in New Delhi as refugees, were following the new war in their country by the minute.

They hope that the American attack would dislodge the Taleban, bring peace to Afghanistan and give them an opportunity to their return to their homes.

"The moment I heard the news of the US attacks on the Taleban, I was delighted. The war should stop only when they oust the Taleban and peace is restored in Afghanistan. There would be a victory in this war only when the Afghan refugees manage to return home," said Mohammed Zakaria, a refugee who now lives in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi.

The refugees are fed of the lives they lead and want to return to their war-ravaged country, but only if there is a return to peace.

"I will rush back to Afghanistan the day the fighting is over and a democratic government is in place. Who wants to live as a refugee, as a stranger in another country?" Abdul Rauf, who dusts carpets in Old Delhi for a living says.

But fear and anxiety are the more dominant feelings on their mind now - they are worried about the safety of their relatives and friends who are still in Afghanistan.

"My mother, brother and his wife are in Kabul. I have no news of them and the attacks by America worry me more. Although Americans say they would not target civilians, missiles and bullets cannot differentiate between civilians and militiamen," said Ubaidullah, who worked for the intelligence department in Afghanistan and escaped to India after the mujahideen (holy warriors) tried to kill him.

"When I lived in Kabul, a rocket hit our house and my child was injured. Even after ten years, my son is stuck to a wheel chair. My heart bleeds to see another war," he added.

Wali Ahmad (20) was forced to come to India in 1998 when his pharmacist father was killed by the Taleban for selling medicines to their Shia opponents in Mazar-e-Sharif.

"Even then, I am saddened by the American attacks because more of my countrymen will be killed. They are already living miserable lives. The attacks will only result in more deaths," Ahmad said.

He is anxious about his uncle Mohammed Akram who is in Kabul. "He worked with the American embassy in Kabul. But I have no clue where he is now. I do not even know whether he is safe," Ahmad added.

Although the refugees see the American action as the only way to get rid of the Taleban, yet they blame America for forgetting the Afghans after it won the proxy war against Russia.

"Americans conveniently forgot us after they used the Afghans to fight the Russians. They left Afghanistan like a pressure cooker unattended on a gas stove. It had to burst. Now that they have been hurt, they are talking of helping us," Rauf pointed out.

Another refugee quotes an Afghan saying referring to America's CIA training Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden during the war against erstwhile USSR - They bought the soil themselves, shaped it into a jar and are breaking it now.

The War on Terrorism: The Complete Coverage

The Terrorism Weblog: Latest Stories from Around the World

External Link:
For further coverage, please visit www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report