Former Taliban fighter Mohammad Ishaq, who spent years battling Western troops and native forces in Afghanistan, misplaced his leg within the battle and is now studying to stroll with a brand new limb. Standing beside him within the Kabul clinic is without doubt one of the troopers he defeated.
At the Red Cross Hospital in Kabul, Ishaq spoke in regards to the eight years he spent within the southern province of Helmand, the place among the fiercest preventing came about and the place 1000’s of civilians and fighters have been killed and maimed.
“For years we fought against the infidels and we defeated them and I got injured,” he mentioned.
Mohammad Ishaq, a Taliban fighter, sits with different sufferers throughout a session to get used to his new leg prosthesis at a rehabilitation middle in Kabul. (Reuters)
That riot was victory in August when radical Islamist militants invaded Kabul and captured the capital. At the identical time, the final international troops have been retreating and what had been little resistance from native Afghan forces rapidly dissipated.
Ishaq waited as a coach, to exchange the left leg to suit a brand new prosthesis he had misplaced to a bullet wound, earlier than being seen by medical workers and sufferers from either side of the battle. Before strolling into the lengthy train corridor.
Due to Afghanistan’s deepening financial disaster and its healthcare crippled, the Red Cross, with a long time of expertise treating battle victims, is without doubt one of the few facilities that may provide prostheses.
“They all help those in need; They provide whatever the people want,” Ishaq mentioned.
The workers are used to deal with Taliban fighters, mentioned Alberto Cairo, an Italian physiotherapist with three a long time of expertise in Afghanistan who leads the orthopedic program for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“The Taliban were coming here, but very rarely and in secret. Now they come very freely, so we have many, 10-15 every day, they come for different reasons,” he mentioned. “We help them like we help everyone.”
‘The struggle is over for me’
The middle, certainly one of seven Red Crosses that operates in Afghanistan, helps individuals with pure disabilities in addition to battle wounded, and has continued to function for the reason that Taliban’s victory, treating all individuals equally. Is.
“There is no change compared to the way we worked earlier, everything is normal. Just like the patients used to come before they arrived,” mentioned Malalai, a feminine physiotherapist who has labored on the middle for the previous 10 years.
Farzana works as a prosthesis maker on the Red Cross Rehabilitation Center in Kabul. (Reuters)
Unlike many Afghan girls who’ve been pressured out of their jobs for the reason that Taliban returned to energy, they’ve been allowed to maneuver on.
While Ishaq tried his new leg, members of the previous Afghan National Army sat in the identical corridor alongside wounded Taliban fighters as victims of a battle that killed and wounded 1000’s of Afghans over 4 a long time.
But there was no victory to ease the struggling of the defeated troopers from the deposed administration, a few of whom fled when the Taliban approached Kabul and left town to its destiny.
Mohammad Tawfiq, a former soldier from Panjshir province within the nation’s north, was paralyzed from the waist down after a Taliban assault, wherein he was the one survivor of his three-man patrol.
He has spent the final three years in mattress and nonetheless wants assist to face up.
As he took the morning solar, he was philosophical about how you can cope with his former enemies and needed to be left alone to go away the battle behind.
Yet after so a few years of bloodshed, doubts in regards to the future have been arduous to dispel.
“The fight is over for me, my fight is over,” he mentioned. “I want to live in a peaceful environment. I can talk to anyone now. But I don’t think they can rule for long.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
