Civilian Casualties in Daimirdad District/ Investigative Report

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Preface

Civilians have been killed and injured, including women and children during a night operation of Afghan forces in four villages of Daimirdad district of Maidan Wardak province. The operation took place on the night of 14^th of May 2019, equivalent to Ramadan 9, from nine PM to late night. In this operation, which took place in Dadakhel, Mohammad Yarkhil, Shahqadam and Qolzangi villages, along with casualties, huge financial losses have been inflicted on the residents of these villages, especially shelters of women and children have been destroyed. Although the provincial office of Maidan Wardak and other security organizations didn’t give any explanation for this operation; but the QASED Strategic Research Center has found that no harm has happened to the anti-government armed fighters in the incident and all victims were civilians.

 

Detailed Information of the Incident Based on Witnesses Statements

Eye-witnesses in the area and local residents, provided information to QASED Strategic Research Center about the incident and its casualties as follows:

The night operations carried out by the Afghan forces on Tuesday night 14 May, in Dadakhel village aiming to capture the Taliban fighters. Beside of this village, three other villages like Mohammad Yarkhil, Shahqadam and Qolzangi were also sieged. The operation started at 9 pm. Afghan forces targeted the previous clinic located in the upper part of Dadakhel village in which a religious Madrassa has been established. Children of the area were learning preliminary religious education there, alongside with memorizing of Quran. With the start of operation and hearing helicopters’ noise, some children have been gone out of the Madrassa and tried to hide themselves in a nearby place; but unfortunately, these children were attacked and six of them were killed.  Another person was killed in his house in Mohammad Yarkhil village. In addition, while opening his house’s door, a farmer was also targeted and killed in Shahqadam village. In the same village, two men were missing, one of them was village grazier and the other was newly returned worker from Iran. Two weeks later, their bodies have been found in a water canal. Two villagers also have been arrested by Afghan forces, who were released later. Also, armed forces have taken out women and children from their houses in Mohammad Yarkhil and Shahqadam villages, and detonated their houses by explosive and completely destroyed them. A resident of Dadakhil village named Khuwani told QASED: “We were going to our homes from Isha prayer, that the sounds and flights of the helicopters were spread. Six helicopters later landed in the area and surrendered religious Madrassa in the upper part of Mohammad Yarkhil village. Finally, 6 persons of the Quran memorizers have been killed, two of whom were residents of our village named Hamid and Ruhullah. Neither they were militants nor able to fight; because their ages were around fifteen years and they were memorizing the Holy Quran in this Madrassa”.

Another resident of Mohammad Yarkhil village told QASED: “I was not in my village that night, but unfortunately, one of our villagers has also been killed in the incident.” Based on the given information from his villager, he told the story of killing that person: “The soldiers came to our villager’s (Zahir) home he said, when the soldiers came in to our home, I looked out from window, wanted to see them, suddenly firing happened and I wounded in my leg. My children were slipped, a bullet hit on my son and was killed on the place.

In addition to interviews with people of the area, we have also monitored the public’s reaction in social media, and many people in the area have published the pictures of killed children in social media.

 

Casualties of the Incident

According to eye-witnesses, neither Taliban fighters nor who belong to Taliban have been killed or arrested during this operation. All of the 10 killed people are civilians.

Among the killed people, 7 were children, aged between 12 and 15 years. Two persons were from Dadakhel village, three persons from Shahqadam village, one person from Mohammad Yarkhel village, one person from Kodai village, two persons from Chehardewal village and another person was resident of Qotubkhel village.

 

Statement of Government Organizations about the Incident

The provincial administration of Maidan Wardak, which usually publishes the details of security incidents, has not published any statement about these night operations and nor did they explanation on the killing of these civilians. QASED tried to contact the officials of this province, aiming to get their opinion related to these casualties, but did not succeed in receiving the opinion of the provincial authorities.

 

Conclusion

QASED Strategic Research Center has found through interviews with local people about the civilian casualties which have been happened in a night operation carried out in the night of 14 May in four villages (Dadakhel, Mohammad Yarkhil, Qolzangi and Shahqadam) of Daimirdad district of Maidan Wardak province. According to the information collected by QASED, ten civilians including seven children were killed in the incident while no armed militants have been killed. In addition, two houses completely destroyed which were the sole shelters of two families including a number of children.

Since the last few months, especially after the beginning of peace negotiations between the US and Taliban, civilian casualties in the Afghan and foreign forces’ night raids have been increased in a rare manner all over the country, in such operations casualties also have been happened in Maidan Wardak province, especially in different areas of Daimirdad district.

By observing the findings of this report, there is so much careless doing with the lives of civilians in the night operations and village surrenders. As a recommendation of this report, the Afghan government’s security organs are strongly requested to stop the night operations and bombardment on the houses of the civilians and make no way to improve the distance between the government and the people.

 

List of the Interviewees

1. Khuwani – Tribal elder, a resident of Dadakhel village, Daimirdad district of Maidan Wardak province.
2. Zahir – The victim of the incident, resident of Mohammad Yarkhel village, Daimirdad district of Maidan Wardak province.
3. Mohammad Sharif – a resident of Daeemirad district, Maidan Wardak province and a school teacher in the area.
4. Ehsanullah – a resident of Dadakhel village, Daimirdad district of Maidan Wardak province.
5. Mahmoudi – resident of Daimirdad district, Maidan Wardak province and employee of the Ministry of Education.
6. Mohammad Hashim – a resident of the incident area and a school teacher in the area.

The End