I currently live in Balkh. I am about 35 years old. I lost three of my cousins and four uncles when the Taliban captured Mazar-e Sharif in 1377. We lost six family members in our district. In total 350 people were killed in the district and approximately 150 of them were killed in front of my eyes. We used to have a very good life. I was not a commander. I was not a political leader. I was a landlord. I was a business man. We had a good life. When the Taliban came to my district, all the military people escaped. Only the civilians remained. And almost all of them were killed.

It was summer. It was around noon when they brought all of us together. They brought us to a house. That’s where they fired at us. I myself witnessed the firing. The Taliban were asking about our age. I was about 23 years old. Twelve years ago. I introduced myself as underage because in Islam you can lie to protect yourself. And I told them that I was a shopkeeper. And I showed my shop’s door keys to them. I am still a shopkeeper. In spite of my lie, they beat me up and put me in a prison. Then, an important commander came. I don’t remember his name. He took out his pistol, killed a few people and then grabbed a machinegun and fired at the rest of the people. I was there with the dead bodies until the next day. I and one of my cousins survived. I don’t know why they didn’t kill me. Later, they put us into containers and took us to Shebergahn. They were beating us with batons and cables. And they were telling us that they will take us to Dashte Leili.

We were really thinking that they would take us to Dashte Leili but they took us to Sheberghan prison. On both sides of the prison there were trees. If somebody has been there, they can confirm that there are trees. We spent five days in that prison. There was no food. And they were providing a bucket of water for 52 people. This was barely enough to wet our lips. After seven or eight days, they were bringing spoiled food that God knows might have remained from the time of King Zaher Shah. They threw it at us from the roof. And the poor prisoners like me were putting this dry and spoiled food into a glass of water and ate it in order to survive. After that the situation normalized and I spent a total of 47 days in that prison. Finally, I was released. I don’t understand why they released me. I only have one last thing to say. Until Justice is not provided in Afghanistan and the perpetrators are not taken to court, there will be no peace in Afghanistan.