The Road to Guantanamo Page #2

What's wrong? What's wrong?

Go on, eat it like a...

Eye witnesses are describing the latest

American raids on Afghanistan

...as the heaviest bombardment so far.

Once again the capital Kabul is bearing the

brunt of the attacks.

Residents have described wave upon wave

of aircraft...

...an a huge fire out near the city's airport.

We were basically just chilling out.

And we were just getting pissed off because

we're not doing anything.

This is not what we came for.

Salam Alecum Do you speak Urdu?

Is Sher Khan here?

We want to talk about something.

We want to go back to Pakistan.

Why?

We're not doing anything here.

We're not helping, just lying around.

Can you arrange something for us?

Okay, I'll sort out a car for you.

Really?

Yes, no problem.

- What did he say?

- He'll sort out the car into Pakistan.

- Sure. Yeah.

For the first time bombs landed in the centre

of the Afghan capital.

This is said to be a residential area.

No deaths were claimed here, but the

Taliban say 15 people were killed...

...when a missile struck a mosque in Jalalabad.

-Is this going to Pakistan?

-Yes, let's go.

Come on, let's go.

We just got on it, assumed it was taking us

in the right direction.

We're buying these lot drinks now as well.

Jacked us last time.

An we ended up in this house in the

middle of nowhere.

That's when we was thinking,

"Where the hell are we? What's happening?"

This guy used to come to us and we used to

ask him every day.

Then one day he came and

took us to Kunduz.

The United Front soldiers on the

road to Kunduz...

...were in high spirits this morning.

Word was out that

the city was about to fall...

...an these men hoped to be among the

first to drive in.

Everywhere you looked there was foreigners..

And you could tell...

...they were all fighters because they had

the Kalashnikovs.

Bombs never dropped in town, but they

dropped on the outskirts.

Once we were in Kunduz, we were trapped.

Zahid, what's he saying?

He's talking about the war.

Two years ago in Dostum's jail...

...he had his fingers cut off one by one.

His brother was killed.

He was pulled apart by two tanks.

Dostum? Who is it?

Dostum, the guy who is bombing on us.

They shouted:

"Long life the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan"

And 'Death to America'.

Basically, I thought,

"This is gonna be my last few days".

Northern Alliance Commanders say this...

...is the last battle for the Taliban's last

northern stronghold.

News came that they have actually broke the

front line in Kunduz...

...and had actually entered Kunduz and

everyone started panicking.

Everyone just ran towards the trucks.

What's going on?

We started looking for Monir,

we couldn't find him.

Wait, Shaf. We gotta get Monir.

You've got to leave now.

Where's my friend Monir?

What's happening?

Some have already gone. Let's go.

ok, Let's go check in here, Shaf.

Monir?

Monir?

Monir?

Monir?

Monir?

we have to go now.

Lets go!

He's not here, cousin.

Where's Monir?

Let's just get on, man.

We have safe passage.

Monir! Is he on that one?

Monir, where are you?

An we ended up on the trucks and people

going "Oh, You'll find him, you'll find him".

But we never did

So that's the last time I seen Monir.

We just literally drove about a good hour, to

the outskirts of Kunduz...

...and they dropped us off. They had to go

back and collect the people left.

We told each other that we're always

gonna stick together.

And then all of a sudden

there was bombing.

Wait there. Wait there, man.

Ruhel. Ruhel!

Ruhel!

F***ing hell!

Get up!

Run!

All night we went in a big circle and we

came back from where we started off.

Salaam.

- Salaam alaikum.

- Alaikum salaam.

Yo Shaf! I'm going this way.

Shafiq and Asif were on that truck.

If I put my shoes on...

and got on to the truck, then maybe we

wouldnt be alive

And you could hear people screaming, and

every person I came across...

...basically either his legs or arms were blown away or his

stomach was popping out, his arms come off.

When someone's in agony and you can't do

anything for them...

...it affects you in a big way.

What's happened?

Bomb blast.

Are you hurt?

Are you all right?

Where's Shafiq?

Over there.

Water?

Ok

He was basically just covered in blood.

Every part of his beard, his face,

everywhere, was covered in blood...

...and you could smell the stench of blood

on him.

Ruhel!

-Ruhel and the others were on the

truck and I just jumped on

- Asif!

We watched as Taliban fighters crossed the

front line...

...in a long stream of Vehicles.

This is the largest single surrender of

Taliban forces...

... that has been witnessed by

outsiders such as ourselves.

The United Front knows that the eyes of the

outside world are upon them

...and especially on how they treat their

prisoners, Afghans...

...but especially those

from outside the country.

We came out with this hope that they are

our brothers, they are Muslims...

...and they would not abuse us or treat us badly,

and that's also what they promised us.

They did not take us far.

It must have been about 3 or 4 miles

Come on!

Sit down!

Take him.

No talking!

Everybody down.

Silence!

Search them!

I thought the guy's gonna kill me, because

he started pointing his gun at me.

What is this?

Huh? What's this?

This one's Pakistani.

That's for you.

Pakistani! Come here!

At that time I was thinking,

they're gonna open fire on everybody.

And in the distance they was like,

they were making mass graves for people...

...and they were throwing bodies in.

And you could see on the other side...

...there were people who had been injured

and you could tell they were still alive...

...and they were throwing them into the

ditch as well.

They tied our hands behind our backs...

...really tight, so you'd lose circulation in

your arms.

F***.

There's a massive ditch there.

They sat everybody into the ditch,

and around that ditch there were gunmen.

An everyone thought

"Yeah, they're gonna shoot everyone in this ditch, and kill us all".

Me and Shaf managed to get on the same

truck.

Asif was with us, but because the truck was

full he couldn't get on.

It must have been about a day,

a day and a half to Mazar-e-Sharif.

Me an Shaf were lucky, we got on to the

canvas container.

It was ram-packed.

After about five minutes,

it started getting really humid.

And it was starting to get difficult to breathe.

Some people, they were screaming. Some

were banging, some were praying.

I got up and I started screaming.

And, like, the guy who was next to me,

he pulled me down.

As he brought me down, it was,

like, easier to breathe.

All of a sudden I just, just got knocked out.

A few hours later we heard shooting we

didn"t know what it was

It went on for about half an hour.

Then, all of a sudden, it went quiet.

Next time I woke up there was all light

inside the container.

And then I noticed there was a body

next to me, there's a body underneath me.

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