"They started telling some of the people to give them their houses, to use for military purposes. When they did, the Taliban soldiers started to smash up the houses, then they drove their jeeps inside the ruins to hide them from the American planes."But a man called Abdulhamid refused. And so, says Salahuddin, the Taliban burned his house down with seven people inside Abdulhamid was a distant relative of Salahuddin. The first Salahuddin knew of what was happening was when he saw the smoke from Abdulhamid's house burning "The women went over and said it was Abdulhamid's house.
The Taliban poured petrol over it, and set light to it," he said.Inside were Abdulhamid, a 50-year-old farmer, his eight-year-old daughter, Maira, and his three sons: Abdulhaq and Rahim, both 12 years old, and Abdullah, who was seven His wife was there too. Salahuddin would not tell us her name as it is dishonourable in Afghan society to give the names of adult women Abdulhamid's brother, Abdullah, was there too. He had run to Abdulhamid's house to hide from the Taliban, said Salahuddin."We were afraid they would do the same to us," says Salahuddin. "Then, that night, after the Taliban left, we went to the house They were bringing the bodies out.
They were all hunched up, their hands clutched in front of them."There was a smell of burning, a really bad smell Everyone was crying I was crying. We buried the bodies that night," he said.The next day, the Taliban returned and ordered the men to go to the front line, where the bombs had been falling. Now they were subjected to forced labour, picking up body parts."They made us gather up the pieces of bodies in plastic bags," he said. "Some of the pieces were a long way from the trenches, where the soldiers were when the bombs fell." He did not think any of the dead were civilians; from where the body parts lay, he said, they all appeared to be Taliban."They came back the next day and made us do the same," he says "After two days, I decided to escape. It was dangerous, but I decided: 'If we get there, we get there If we die, we die.
