Khadim’s Quetta

khAdim duRRani Quettawaal

Afghanistan is one of those unfortunate countries where war-like situation still prevails, where a previous super invader has been replaced by a new super one. Thirty years on, there is no end to the bloodletting. Over the last three decades millions of Afghans have been displaced both externally and internally. What is peculiar and painful about the Afghan Diaspora is that there is a very large number of Afghans who are known to be missing.

When did they go missing? What happened to these thousands of missing people, where are they? Did they become the victims of the War Machine? Were they recruited by Jihadi groups and they lost their lives while fighting for their cause? Or did they die a suffocating death in closed containers while being transported by their opponents in order to get rid of them. For example after the fall of the Taliban many people died a horrible death in closed containers while being detained and transported by the rival factions with the connivance of the US army!

Or, are these missing people still alive? If yes, then what stops them from getting in touch with their loved ones who announce their names regularly through radio broadcasts across the globe?

My own attention was drawn to the above issue while listening to the US funded Radio Azadi’s Pashto and Dari services. Almost five days a week during their morning sessions Azadi Radio broadcasts both in Pashto and Dari languages the pre-recorded messages of Afghans whose loved ones are missing. You can feel the pain and frustration in their voice. Some of them have been missing for more than 15 years; there are those who went missing only a few years ago. About some of the missing people their relatives say they have got no clue at all what happened to them, they just disappeared from the scene in Afghanistan or Pakistan; about others their relatives say they were in Iran when the last time they had heard from them, they had gone there to find  work and perhaps from there they wanted to go to Europe via Turkey. I am wondering if there is any other country on the planet where such a large number of people have been declared missing? Their number could be in thousands, we don’t know! I don’t know either to what extent Red Crescent and Red Cross are involved in addressing this issue.

I can only request those countries that have got their stakes in Afghanistan to please help these Afghan mums and dads, brothers and sister, grandparents, and other close relatives find those they have been trying to find so hard for the past many years.

Over the last many years, International media, in particular western ones have been showing to their western viewers programmes about human and women’s rights in Afghanistan as well as about military operations in which their respective countries are involved. But who is going to raise the issue of missing Afghans? Are they not the product and victims of illegal interventions on behalf of various countries that have only destroyed the very fabric of Afghanistan’s peaceful and traditional society? If a documentary on poppy growers of Afghanistan is worth showing, surely 30 minutes’ programme on the plight of missing people and the effect it has on their families can be treated as a noble cause. I don’t think Afghan media or any other organisation has got the resources to internationalise this issue.

I hope important international media outlets such as BBC, Sky news, Aljazeera, Channel 4, France 24 or any US TV channels will look into this humanitarian situation and help Afghan families trace their loved ones; an effective documentary, made in major languages, can turn this issue into a Cause célèbre.

Finally, Radio Azadi’s efforts cannot be ignored, their services in this regard must be acknowledged and appreciated; they are really doing a great job through their regular broadcasts about the missing Afghans. And I am sure many people may have been reunited with their families through their programmes.