“In 1981 my cousin, Qari Monir, was taken along with
thirteen other elders and mullahs by communist troops into the desert. For six
months the villagers did not know what happened to them. Then one day a
shepherd minding his animals in the desert area surrounding the village saw a
piece of white cloth under the earth. He pulled at it and finally he realized
that it was a long scarf. As he continued to dig he saw that there was a man
buried there. . . Eventually, the fourteen bodies of our leaders were recovered.
Their hands and feet had been tied and they had been buried alive. . . These
were spiritual people and they were awaiting a proper and respectful burial. It
was this incident which convinced us that the communists were willing to kill
us all, not just those who were fighters. And so we decided to leave the
village and take our families to the safety of Pakistan. In the months that
followed, the men returned to Afghanistan to free our country from the
invaders.”