Former female Afghan police officer narrates how Taliban tormented her

A gut-wrenching story of a former female police officer in Afghanistan has come to delicate. Khatera Hashmi alongside collectively along with her two-year-old daughter was at a National Association for the Blind (NAB) campus in Delhi the place she narrated her horrific ordeal in a modern interview.

She mentioned that no matter being married at a minor age and lacking any formal training, she nonetheless chosen to affix the police division which infuriated the Taliban and they also retaliated in primarily essentially the most brutal technique.

“My father got me engaged at the age of seven and got me married at the age of twelve to a much older man because he was money-grubbing. I wanted education, but the former didn’t allow it. Nonetheless, I made the decision to join the Afghan police. The Taliban started calling and threatening me due to their opposition to a woman being police personnel,” she talked about.

“The incident happened in the early months of 2020 when the Taliban were rapidly advancing to take over Afghanistan. I was pregnant at that time. One day, when I was walking home from the police station, they attacked me. My body was struck by 9 bullets, in addition to 10 knife stabs. They also cut out my eyes after I passed out,” she revealed the gorgeous particulars of the Taliban’s barbarity.

“When I awoke five days later, everything was pitch black. I had absolutely no vision. I was only able to work as a police officer for three months, and I wasn’t even able to view my first paycheck,” she narrated her tragedy.

Her physique continues to be lined in tiny gunshot fragments which set off her frequent ache. The doctor tried to eradicate them and gave her plenty of injections of therapy. Moreover, two gunshots are lodged in her head. She shouldn’t be positive of when they’re going to be taken out and is current course of treatment. She moreover forgets many points when conversing as a result of agony and has to pause for a while.

She has stone eyeballs on both facet. “Earlier, they were sutured and it used to be excruciatingly painful. My eyes were always watery,” she talked about.

Referring to her daughter she unveiled, “I’ll never be able to see how she looks or appears when she laughs. I went blind before she was even born. Now, I can only envision her in my mind. I couldn’t even fathom that she would be born healthy.”

She even tried to kill herself after the incidence. “The Taliban attacked me while she was still in the womb. I tried to attempt suicide many times but then stopped after thinking about her. I am aware that, at least today, I am living for my children. I had merely enlisted in the police force to defend Afghan women and kids. I wanted to help and protect them from the Taliban,” she bemoaned.

Her father disagreed with her various to pursue a occupation inside the police. “My dad didn’t want me to work for the police. No woman has ever held a job in my family until now. I began receiving daily threatening calls from different phone numbers from the Taliban after I joined the police, but I wasn’t worried.”

“The Taliban barred females from attending school and any girls from working. They sought to keep all the women confined to their houses. My father used to say the situation in the country is worsening. I wanted to assist Afghan women, but he used to say it was not right for me to join the police. However, I joined it without having any education,” she continued.

“When the Taliban’s monstrosities in Afghanistan began to progressively escalate and they began to launch covert attacks, I raised my voice against them.” She would go to the Afghan legislation enforcement officers on each day foundation to ask them to let her be part of the police.

“Some of them even laughed and told me that I am not educated and wanted to join the police. They thought I had ties to the Taliban as well, but one of their senior officers looked into it, spoke with me, and assisted me in joining the department,” she well-known. Subsequently, she did acquire some education. She labored for the police for one and a half years with none wage sooner than turning into a member of and training in Kabul, which is when the event occurred.

“Three mask-donning Taliban attacked me. I put my hand by one of their collars during the assault and saw his face as I removed the mask. The Taliban believed I knew who they were. They shot at me with silencer-equipped weapons. Nine rounds were fired, striking my various body areas and I was stabbed ten times. I held my breath and they abandoned me thinking I was dead. The Afghan police arrived and helped get me checked into the hospital,” she proclaimed.

When queried if she had any outdated footage, she answered, “You are enquiring about a photo while my life was on the line.”

When she first joined the police strain the Taliban used to go to her father and warn “Your daughter is not doing right. Make her understand.” She recollected, “My father said that what I had feared had come true when I went blind. I objected, but you didn’t listen.”

“My father should have taught me. I used to have eyes, but I was also blind before I lost them. I believe that education is the eyes’ light,” she conveyed stressing the importance of education.

Her current husband works in Delhi, nevertheless her first companion, two sons and a daughter are nonetheless in Afghanistan. “In addition to my parents, my first husband, two sons, and a daughter are presently living in Afghanistan. My son is frequently asked by the Taliban if I have gone back to Afghanistan. I don’t know why they are still after me,” she questioned.

“My first husband is above eighty. I remarried after he divorced me. He wanted more children, but the doctor cautioned him that it was not feasible given his advanced age. Later, he sold everything he owned and I had nowhere to go. I then got married to a man of my choice. He is the one who brought me to India after the Taliban attacked me,” she professed.

“What should I do? There is no food to eat or a place to live. My kids and first husband fight a lot whenever they visit him after which they go to my mother. I speak to her occasionally but never with my father,” she vocalised.

She intends to relocate all of her youngsters from Afghanistan. “They have hope that if I am still alive and residing in India, I will eventually meet them one day. All I want right now is to complete my adult blind training as soon as possible so I can start working and support myself. I wish to invite those three kids to India to live with me.”

She moreover talked about her story in an interview carried out in 2021.

Twenty years after being pushed from vitality by American forces, the Taliban took once more administration of Afghanistan in 2021. They have oppressed ladies and minorities, violated human rights and neglected vital suppliers all through their ruthless regime.