Fakhruddin and Gul Chehra, an elderly couple in Panjshir, lost three sons and three sons-in-law in the war between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front (NRF) late last summer. The elderly couple is now left physically and mentally broken with six widowed women and their orphaned grandchildren.
In September, the Taliban deployed thousands of heavily armed forces in the northeastern Panjshir province and started a military crackdown on the NRF fighters.
The war between the two sides lasted several weeks and left huge casualties on both sides.
Subsequently, the Taliban were accused of executing captured NRF fighters. The group which is ruling now Afghanistan is said to have captured and then executed a total of 60 NRF members during the Panjshir battle.
According to relatives of the couple, their sons and sons-in-law were first captured and then executed by the Taliban in Dara district of Panjshir.
The couple’s sons were named Sadruddin, Habil, and Majid, and their sons-in-law were named Khalil, Farman, and Ellamuddin. They have all left children behind.
Relatives of the couple said that they are now suffering from mental illnesses as a result of the pressure they have gone through for losing their sons and sons-in-law.
“The pain of this family cannot be described in words. Now, the parents of these war victims are suffering from severe mental illness. The shock of this terrible loss [incident] has made them lose their minds,” a close relative of the couple told about their condition.
According to this relative, the widowed daughters and daughters-in-law are now caring for the couple. “These parents do not understand now how to act. They are broken to an extent that cannot move and have lost their physical and mental strength.”
Local sources tell tragic stories about the situation of this family who has now moved to Kabul. They have no breadwinner for now and were not able to collect their agricultural harvest this year.
