Afghanistan violence

As director the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre in Kandahar and as a school teacher and principal, I was deeply saddened and outraged to hear about the United Nations employees who were killed in cold blood on Friday in Mazar-i-Sharif. On behalf of the Afghan men, women and children who have been given a chance because of the sacrifices and humanitarian services of our international friends, I can tell you that we are bleeding in our hearts.

Here in Kandahar City there is a lot of smoke — tires are burning, markets are burning, cars are burning. All day Saturday there were gunshots. Some were very close to my house but I stayed in the school both days of the weekend violence to make sure our students and teachers were safe. I am advising our students and teachers to stay home.

At one point I was able to use a trick to save my school from demonstrators just as they arrived close to our gate. When the demonstrators entered our street, I asked the guards and drivers to rush through the back door and join the demonstration and to divert it from our gate. They did this, and as soon as the demonstration passed I called them over the phone to tell them they could separate from the demonstration. They were safe. We did this because, otherwise, anything could have happened to us.

We condemn the brutal killings. We deeply believe that justice will be done, that people who love peace will prevail, but now the grief is deeply shared by all of us. With every such tragic loss, we bleed in our hearts.