C2905575 Accession Number: AWM2022.289.1.13

Description

Abdul Rashid (approx. 9), one of the seven children aged between 5 and 12 from the Mirza Gul family who had at least one leg amputated (Rashid lost two) after an accident with an unexploded Rocket Propelled Grenade one of them found. After one month in hospital recovering from his wounds and surgery, Rashid was once again being assessed for surgery after staff at the International Committee for the Red Cross' (ICRC) orthopaedic centre in Jalalabad performed an x-ray on his femurs and discovered that a severe fracture is far from healed and will require further surgery, and perhaps an external fixation bracket to secure the bone in place in order for it to heal sufficiently to withstand the weight place on a prosthesis in the future. Abdul Rashid was accompanied by his father Hamisha Gul and two uncles. They consulted with ICRC staff about where to have the operation conducted. While ICRC recommended having it performed at Nangarhar Regional Hospital, where the ICRC orthopaedic centre is located, the men ultimately decided to take Rashid to a private hospital where they believed the treatment would be superior. During the consultation and assessment by ICRC staff, Rashid cried occasionally but responded enthusiastically when he was presented with a brand new wheelchair, which he was given training in and which he wheeled himself around the ortho centre gait training room in, as other older patients watched on, many shaking their heads in sadness because of Rashid's age. One patient even cried upon watching Rashid for a short time. He then drew a few notes of Pakistani rupees and handed them to one of Rashid's uncles as he wheeled himself away. The accident happened when one of the children found an the unexploded RPG in a field near their home in the village of Saed Tuba in the district of Surkh Rod in Nangarhar Province on April 29, 2018. It had been discarded after fighting between the Taliban and the Afghan National Army (ANA) the night before. One of the children took it home, where it exploded after being dropped outside the house's front gate. As well as the seven children who required single or double leg amputations, four others from the family were killed in the explosion. The children that survived are all now at home after spending varying lengths of time being operated on and recovering in Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad City Abdul Rashid is the only one of the seven who, at this stage, requires further surgery prior to being fitted with prostheses. In the week or two preceding this day, the children were all provided with crutches and/or wheelchairs (which they call bicycles) by the ICRC. In the week prior to this day, despite the success of a three day ceasefire between the Taliban and government forces over the Eid ul-Fitr holiday between June 15 and 17, the family said there had been fighting very close to their house on four occasions. When they heard the sound of RPGs, Hamisha Gul, the patriarch of the family said, the children were all terrified, crawling from their wheelchairs to get to him. Two days before this photo was taken, 200 metres from the house, Hamisha Gul showed this photographer yet another unexploded RPG, identical to the one that maimed his family, which had been left behind after one such battle between Taliban and ANA soldiers. While Hamisha Gul had called a government mine disposal authority, the piece of unexploded ordnance was still where it had fallen days afterward. Taken at 11:41:15

Details

Conflicts

• Afghanistan, 2001-2021