Afghanistan war; A young boy with three graves:
“I went to the hospital; I saw a completely burnt corpse on the bed. David had white skin and brown hair. I saw his hair was burned, his face and body were swollen. I screamed. I told the doctor that this is not my David. The doctor slowly rubbed his burnt face. He pulled and asked, “What is my son’s name?”
The heat of David’s death made his mother’s hair white and her eyes dim. The grief of Marzieh Arshadi, Davood’s mother, is still fresh two years after her death.
Davood was an 18-year-old boy who was killed more than two years ago in an attack on the “Promised Mehdi” training center in Kabul. At least 50 students were killed and about 70 others were injured in the incident, which was claimed by ISIS.
Davood’s photo frame is installed in the narrow hallway of their small house, under a wall clock, facing the living room. Every morning, before the prayer, the mother talks to a picture of David and makes a promise.
“I’m saying, ‘David, I’m not coming to you, it’ s okay if you’re lonely for a while. I’m comforting myself by chatting.
From the last minutes of Davood’s presence at home, the mother says: She took two apples from the refrigerator and sat down; I was looking towards the flood. He got up, said goodbye and left. A few minutes later my daughter came and said it had exploded. Explosion at the Promised School.
David in the hospital; His family did not recognize him
Like all similar deadly events, the phones ring but no one answers behind the line.
Like all bloody attacks, families rush to the scene, but there is no sign of their loved ones.
The mother goes to all the local hospitals looking for David; There is no sign of him.
Minutes later, Zahra, Davood’s sister, called her mother and said: “Davood was taken to Aliabad Hospital, he is injured.”
The mother is thankful that her son is still alive and goes to the hospital. But he cannot believe that David is the person he met in the hospital.
There is no more news about the expressive stature and face of teenager Davood. The family did not recognize David when he came across the injured body in the hospital.
But at the doctor’s request, David slowly says his name.
Saturday (20 August 2016); Davood goes to school with hope and a smile to enroll in the entrance exam preparation class. Four days later; Wednesday (August 15, 1397) His burnt body is handed over to his family with tears.
Eight days in the hospital
David was severely wounded in that attack. The whole body was burnt in that explosion. He lost sight of one eye. A splinter hit him in the mouth and bit his teeth. Other faces hit his chest deeply, and other faces damaged other parts of his body.
Despite the severe wound he sustained, he was still able to speak slowly, kiss his mother’s hands, and tell his father to pick up the books he had left at school and take them home.
Davood was hospitalized in Aliabad and “Emergency” hospitals for eight days after the attack.
Doctors lamented the inactivation of part of his body every day.
Seven days after the attack; David’s leg was amputated
The first day of Eid al-Adha, seven days after the attack, Emergency Hospital; Due to a serious injury, Davood’s doctor had to amputate his left leg.
Zahra says: My father buried Davood’s foot and when he returned home at night, he said do not be upset. I remember he thanked me more than ten times. Which father’s heart can see his son’s amputated leg and be thankful? But my father was thankful that David was still alive.
After hearing the news of Davood’s amputation, Zahra searches the internet overnight for the price and function of the artificial leg and thinks of planning a warm welcome for Davood at home.
Eighth day; The news of David’s death arrived
On the second day of Eid al-Adha, eight days after the attack, one day after David was amputated, news of his death reached his family.
The father who buried Davood’s foot yesterday must bury his body today.
Davood’s lifeless body was transported directly from the emergency hospital to the mosque. He never returned home.
The photos that Davood took for his school / high school diploma have now been printed and covered on his body.
Three tombs for David
The body and what is left of David are lying in three tombs. His family occasionally mourns over one of his graves.
The day before his death, his left leg was buried in Sarkariz neighborhood of Kabul. At his own will, Davood’s body was buried next to his grandfather’s tomb in Wardak Square, and Davood has a tomb on the “Martyrs of Knowledge” hill, where his books and notebooks are buried.
The bodies of the victims of the attack on the Promised School are buried on a hill west of Kabul, later known as the Hill of the Martyrs of Knowledge.
In that incident, Zaki, a friend of Davood, also suffered a fracture and died.
David was a 12th grader, and his family says he liked to study philosophy.
According to his sister Zahra, he had many aspirations and was restless to fulfill his dreams.
I could not talk to David’s father. He is a taxi driver and travels the busy streets of Kabul from morning till night. Zahra says that her father rarely speaks after Davood’s funeral.
The mother remembers her rabbit with a burning sigh and regret. That you kiss his forehead and hands every day after school. From David’s humor and his efforts to build a better future for his younger siblings. Even when he is in pain, he remembers the eight days of David’s pain in the hospital.
“The last time I saw him at Aliabad Hospital, he was being taken to the emergency hospital. I saw him for the last time on the hospital courtyard. I kissed his hands. I did not see it.”
David left with a world of hope. Like dozens of other students who have died in deadly attacks on educational institutions in recent months and years.
And the bitter story of the death of the youth continues …
