“We Pulled Them Out With Our Own Hands” | Voices from North Waziristan

Jul 2014
By Mahvish Ahmad, Asad Hashim & Anum Naz

A man recounts the tale of an aerial bombardment that took place before the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb. He asks to remain anonymous in fear of those he accuses.

In the video, the man says that a bombardment took place in the home of Faridullah Shah in Musaki, a village in Mir Ali, where “19 members of just one family died. One lived because he was in Abu Dhabi.”

A few weeks after the interview, Asad Hashim, a Tanqeed editorial board member, received a witness statement from a man living in Dubai who lost 24 members of his family during aerial bombardments on his home in Mir Ali’s Musaki village. Tanqeed is unable to confirm whether the man in the video and the man who gave this witness statement is speaking of the same attack or separate attacks, and we leave it to the reader to come to their own conclusion. While there are similarities between the two attacks (around 20 died, only one family member who happened to be working in the Gulf survived, the attack took place in Musaki village in Mir Ali) there are also, albeit small, discrepancies (the man in the video claims the attack took place “8 to 9 days before” Operation Zarb-e-Azb while the witness statement places the attack on May 21, 2014; the man in the video says the one surviving member lived in Abu Dhabi and not in Dubai as the man in the statement claims; the video says 19 died while the statement says 24 died.)

We have reproduced the original testimony in full: First the original Urdu one, and then an English translation:

میرا نام نور دراز خان ہے اور میں شمالی وزیرستان کے علاقے موسکی کا رہنے والا ہوں۔ میں تقریباۤ چھ سال سے دوبئی میں بطور لیبر کام کر رہا ہوں۔ گزشتہ ماہ 21 مئی 2014 کو رات ڈھائی بجے ہمارے گھر پر جیٹ طیاروں نے بمباری کی۔ پہلے دو میزائل داغے گئے اور اس کے بعد جب میرے چچا زاد بھائیوں نے امدادی کاروائیاں شروع کیں تو جیٹ طیاروں نے تیسرا میزائل داغ دیا جس میں کل چوبیس افراد شہید ہوئے جس میں میری بیوی، چھ بچوں سمیت شہید ہوئی جبکہ میری ایک بھابی اپنے پانچ بچوں سمیت اور دوسری بھابی بھی سات بچوں سمیت شہید ہوئی۔ جبکہ میرے چچازاد بھائی اور ان کا ایک بچہ اس بمباری میں منٹوں میں شہید کر دیے گئے۔ میں دبئی میں تھا مجھے صبح سات بجے فون آیا کہ آپ کے گھر پر بمباری ہوئی ہے جس میں آپ کے گھر والے شہید ہو گئے ہیں۔ میں پاسپورٹ لیکر پاکستان آیا لیکن آج ایک مہینہ ہونے کو ہے اور میں اپنے گھر نہیں جا سکا، اس وقت بھی کرفیو تھا اور اب بھی حالات ویسے ہی ہیں۔ انہوں نے مزید بتایا کہ میری ایک بھتیجی طاہرہ بی بی جس کی عمر بمشکل دس سال ہو گی ملبے میں دب گئی تھی صرف اس کا سر ملبے سے باہر تھا اور یہ کلمہ طیبہ کا ورد کرتی رہی، اللہ تعالی نے اس کی زندگی بچا لی ہے، یہ بچی دوسرے بچوں کے ساتھ خیسور گئی اور پانچ دن بعد بنوں پہنچی ، انہوں نے بتایا کہ میرے دیگر دو بھائی جن کے خاندان بھی مکمل شہید ہوئے ہیں ان میں ایک اپنے گھر میں مرغی فارم کا کام کرتا تھا اور دوسرا سبزی فروش تھا جبکہ ان کا چچا زاد شٹرنگ کا کاروبار کرتا تھا۔ اس سانحے کے بارے نور دراز خان نے مزید بتایا کہ جب ہمارے گھر پر میزائل داغے گئے تو کوئی مرد گھر پر موجود نہیں تھا۔ یہ اللہ کی مرضی تھی میرے خاندان کی زندگی ختم تھی۔ کیونکہ میرے خاندان میں کوئی دہشت گرد نہیں تھا لیکن اس کے باوجود میرے پورے خاندان کو شہید کیا گیا، بلکہ ہم ایک طرف کے بھی نہیں ہیں۔ شمالی وزیرستان جانے کے بارے میں انہوں نے کہا کہ اب تو پاکستان میں رہنے کا بھی کوئی فائدہ نہیں اور میں نے واپس دوبئی جانے کا ارادہ کیا ہے۔ کیونکہ گھر کا سارا سامان وہاں کے موجود لوگوں نے لوٹ لیا ہے، دس مویشی بھی ہلاک ہو گئے ہیں جبکہ جنازے بھی وہاں رشتے داروں نے مشکل سے پڑھائےہیں کیونکہ صبح سے شام تک شیلنگ ہوتی رہی۔

“My name is Noor Daraz Khan and I am from Musaki, North Waziristan. I have been working in Dubai for the last six years as a laborer. On May 21,2014, at 2:30 AM, jets bombarded our home. At first, two missiles were fired and after that, when my cousins initiated relief, jets bombarded the third missile in which a total of 24 people were martyred including my wife and my six children. My sister-in-law with her five children, and another sister-in-law with her seven children, were also martyred. My cousin and his son were also martyred by bombs in minutes. I was in Dubai and I received a call at 7 AM where they told me that there had been a bombardment in my home and my family had been martyred. I took my passport and came to Pakistan but today it has been a month and I could not go to my home. There was a curfew back then and the situation remains the same. My niece, Tahira Bibi, was barely ten years old and she was buried in the rubble. Only her head was sticking out as she recited Kalima Tayyaba. Allah has saved her life. She went to Khaisoor [in Dera Ismail Khan] with the other children and reached Bannu after another five days. He told me that my brothers families were also killed. One of them worked in a house poultry farm and the other was a vegetable seller while his cousin was in the shuttering [unclear in original Urdu] business.” Noor Daraz Khan said more about the tragedy. “When the missiles were fired at our house there were no men in the house. It was the will of Allah and my family’s life was over. There were no terrorists in my family but still my entire family was killed, and we are not on anyone’s side.” About going to North Waziristan, he [Noor Daraz Khan] said that there is no point in staying in Pakistan now. “I have decided to go back to Dubai because people have robbed all our belongings there, ten cattle have also been killed. The relatives did the funeral with difficulty because there was shelling from morning till evening.”

Voices from North Waziristan is a video series on Tanqeed which brings interviews of those affected by Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

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This entry was posted on Jul 2014 at 4:27 AM and is filed under FATA, main bar, Terror, Voices, Zarb-e-Azab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

23 Responses to “We Pulled Them Out With Our Own Hands” | Voices from North Waziristan

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    […] But we exist, and we believe that a senseless and indiscriminate war-drive will result in more death, pain, and grief, making us less secure – not […]

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