With a terrifying sound, dozens of shocking and sad narratives are created for the people of this land. In the blink of an eye, everyday joys collapse. One of those stories has emerged in recent days. Something like a gradual death that has cut off family members. It is a strange that we are forced to be happy for not getting killed and be content to be just injured. That we rejoice even though pain and fear are intertwined and cast a shadow over the child and the elder of the family. Incidents happen that kill everyone and bring them back to life a thousand times a day.
All this feeling was evoked when I saw, with my own eyes, Sabzagul with her amputated leg on the hospital bed, the innocent and frightened faces of Aisha and Malika, tears and blood flowed together down their dusty cheeks, and 22-year-old Maryam on a hospital bed, who gradually regained consciousness after several days… She is not well, either in her soul or her body.
Everything was fine until a few days ago. Until February 21, until that Sunday, until 4:20 p.m. Sabzagul, who is the grandmother of Aisha and Malika, went out of the house with her daughter Maryam (the children’s aunt) to do a diabetes test. The distance from the house to the lab was only 10 minutes and everything happened in that short 10-minute walk. A terrifying sound at the intersection of Baraki ̶̶ Sabzagul fallen in one corner, Maryam in the other, and the two frightened children, Aisha and Malika, on the bloody ground crying and pleading, “Mother, get up mother” (they call their grandmother ‘mother’).
The explosion happened shortly after noon in front of a house where neighbors were able to identify the children and alert family members. Everyone was shocked, most notably Aisha and Malika’s mother, whose four loved ones were injured in the blast, her mother, her sister and her two innocent children. All four were taken to hospital. Sabzagul was taken to the emergency hospital due to the severity of the bleeding and her critical condition, Maryam to Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital and her two children to the Child’s Health Hospital.
The condition of the family was getting worse by the second as videos of the moments after the explosion and the innocent crying and begging of Aisha and Malika for their grandmother to get up circulated on social media. More unpleasantness, more worrying. The worries increased when none of the four wounded were well. Relatives and friends were separated between the hospitals. Part of the anxiety intensified behind the gate of the Emergency Hospital, when the doctors did not say anything. It was only clear that the situation was critical and the wound was so deep that Sabzagul’s leg had to be amputated.
That night, Maryam and her two children were taken to a Amniat Hospital. The problem with Aisha and Malika was not light injuries, but deep shock that had entered their souls. Their continuous screams betrayed their hearts full of fear.
I was talking to Hakim Saeedi, the children’s uncle. “We do not know which one to care for first,” he said. “I grieve for my mother’s amputated leg. She is still unconscious and does not know that her leg has been amputated. Maryam’s condition is unknown and after a few days she regained consciousness, and finally Aisha and Malika…” he cries, but continues: “Aisha and Malika have been discharged from the hospital for two days, but what can be done? The state of mind and shock inflicted on both of them is very serious. They cannot rest either at night or day for even a minute. Fear has taken over their whole lives. They are just screaming and crying…. Tomorrow we will take them to the hospital again.”
He says, “What do we have to be happy about? For peace? What peace? Is this peace? Is this peace that we have? Who can put themselves in our place? Several critically injured in several hospitals. An event that is not much different from gradual death. When these girls grow up, will they forget that scene full of horror? When will they forget? One more day? 10 days? One year or a few years? They will never forget. All wounds do not heal. This happened in front of our house, which means we can’t even get out of the gates of our house. Is this peace?”
A few days have passed since the explosion at the Barki intersection. The wounded are breathing, but the family dies and comes to life a thousand times a day for fear of tomorrow…If the mother finds out that her leg has been amputated… Maryam, if she does not get well… What will happen tomorrow?
