Wasil Ahmad

Wasil Ahmad was born in Uruzgan province. The region has been described as "long... a centre of conflict;" Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was born there, and the later president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, led the first Pashtun revolt against the Taliban there in 2001.[2] Ahmad's father had previously been killed fighting the Taliban, and his son later said that seeking revenge for his father's death was his main motivation in going to war.[1][3] Ahmad's uncle was the Afghan Local Police commander in Khas Uruzgan District, Uruzgan province. He had previously been a Taliban commander, but had changed sides in 2012, and was now fighting for the Afghan government.[4] In summer 2015, Khas Uruzgan- his area of control- was besieged by the Taliban, and Samad was injured. Ahmad subsequently took command of his uncle's unit.[1][5]

Oruzgan districts

At the height of the Dan Sango[3] siege, Ahmad was commanding 75 pro-government soldiers against an attacking force of approximately "hundreds" of Taliban.[1] The siege itself lasted for 71 days, and Ahmad commanded his squad for 43 of them.[1] He fired both mortars and rockets as well as machine guns from the compound roof.[2] As well as physical fighting, Ahmad was also responsible for communications with the outside world, and the point of contact for the Afghan special forces.[3] When the latter raised the siege in August 2015,[3] Ahmad and 35 surviving soldiers were airlifted out by Afghan and NATO helicopters[6] to Tarin Kowt.[1] According to Samad, the authorities "praised him and his nephew Wasil as heroes."[1]

Following the siege, Ahmad enrolled into school in the fourth-grade,[6] whilst also receiving private tuition at home.[1] He improved his English, although was not "a good student" – possibly, a neighbour later commented, because he had been "highly encouraged by police officials and awarded medals for his bravery" and only "wanted to play with weapons and drive police vehicles as a hobby."[6] He was authorised to carry a pistol to school.[3] On Monday, 1 February 2016, at the local bazaar,[2] on his way to school,[7] he was shot twice[2] in the head by masked gunmen in a motorbike drive-by shooting, in what has been called a "targeted assassination".[3] He later died in a Kandahar hospital[1] and was buried in the local Shahidano cemetery.[6]

Following Ahmad's death, there was controversy as to his precise position in the besieged force. Samad stressed that Ahmad was merely "defending his family,"[1] whilst Samad recovered from injuries he had already received.[8] The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, however, said that, since he had been supplied with a gun and a police uniform, this was in breach of anti-child-soldiering laws.[1] The Commission also suggested that the police had themselves endangered Ahmad's life by lauding him as a hero. They had garlanded him 'with plastic flowers'[2] and even held a program at Police headquarters "where his bravery and courage was talked about by officials."[8] The government Ministry of Interior Affairs also denied that child soldiers were used by government forces; conversely, the charity Child Soldiers International has also claimed that both sides used them.[2]