Wasil Ahmad (c. 2005 – February 2016) was an Afghan child soldier, who is best known for commanding a police unit and his subsequent killing by the Taliban when he was eleven years old.[1] His uncle Samad, trained him "in the use of AK-47 and PK machine guns, rockets and mortars as well as satellite phones and VHF radios."[1]
Wasil Ahmad واصل احمد | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 2005 Urozgan Province, Afghanistan |
| Died | (aged 11) Kandahar, Afghanistan |
| Employer | Afghan Government |
Upbringing
editWasil Ahmad was born in Uruzgan province. The region has been described as "long... a centre of conflict;" Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was born there, and the later president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, led the first Pashtun revolt against the Taliban there in 2001.[2] Ahmad's father had previously been killed fighting the Taliban, and his son later said that seeking revenge for his father's death was his main motivation in going to war.[1][3] Ahmad's uncle was the Afghan Local Police commander in Khas Uruzgan District, Uruzgan province. He had previously been a Taliban commander, but had changed sides in 2012, and was now fighting for the Afghan government.[4] In summer 2015, Khas Uruzgan- his area of control- was besieged by the Taliban, and Samad was injured. Ahmad subsequently took command of his uncle's unit.[1][5]
Siege
edit
At the height of the Dan Sango[3] siege, Ahmad was commanding 75 pro-government soldiers against an attacking force of approximately "hundreds" of Taliban.[1] The siege itself lasted for 71 days, and Ahmad commanded his squad for 43 of them.[1] He fired both mortars and rockets as well as machine guns from the compound roof.[2] As well as physical fighting, Ahmad was also responsible for communications with the outside world, and the point of contact for the Afghan special forces.[3] When the latter raised the siege in August 2015,[3] Ahmad and 35 surviving soldiers were airlifted out by Afghan and NATO helicopters[6] to Tarin Kowt.[1] According to Samad, the authorities "praised him and his nephew Wasil as heroes."[1]
Murder
editFollowing the siege, Ahmad enrolled into school in the fourth-grade,[6] whilst also receiving private tuition at home.[1] He improved his English, although was not "a good student" – possibly, a neighbour later commented, because he had been "highly encouraged by police officials and awarded medals for his bravery" and only "wanted to play with weapons and drive police vehicles as a hobby."[6] He was authorised to carry a pistol to school.[3] On Monday, 1 February 2016, at the local bazaar,[2] on his way to school,[7] he was shot twice[2] in the head by masked gunmen in a motorbike drive-by shooting, in what has been called a "targeted assassination".[3] He later died in a Kandahar hospital[1] and was buried in the local Shahidano cemetery.[6]
Controversy
editFollowing Ahmad's death, there was controversy as to his precise position in the besieged force. Samad stressed that Ahmad was merely "defending his family,"[1] whilst Samad recovered from injuries he had already received.[8] The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, however, said that, since he had been supplied with a gun and a police uniform, this was in breach of anti-child-soldiering laws.[1] The Commission also suggested that the police had themselves endangered Ahmad's life by lauding him as a hero. They had garlanded him 'with plastic flowers'[2] and even held a program at Police headquarters "where his bravery and courage was talked about by officials."[8] The government Ministry of Interior Affairs also denied that child soldiers were used by government forces; conversely, the charity Child Soldiers International has also claimed that both sides used them.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Popalzai, Masoud (5 February 2016). "11-year-old Afghan boy, hailed as hero for fighting Taliban, killed by militants". CNN. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f "Assassinated: The little boy who became a hero of Afghanistan's resistance against Taliban". 3 February 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f "Siege 'Hero,' 12, Gunned Down by Taliban". NBC News. 3 February 2016.
- ^ "Afghan boy who was declared a hero for fighting the Taliban gunned down on his way to school". 3 February 2016.
- ^ Chan, Melissa. "Taliban Kills 10-Year-Old Soldier Hailed as War Hero".
- ^ a b c d "Taliban Gun Down 10-Year-Old Militia Hero in Afghanistan". The New York Times. 3 February 2016.
- ^ "10-year-old 'hero' who fought against Taliban assassinated on his way to school". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b Graham-Harrison, Emma (3 February 2016). "Wasil Ahmad: the 10-year-old 'hero' murdered by the Taliban". The Guardian.