• Afghan interpreter’s family killed by Taliban near Kandahar
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[QUOTE]When Sayed Shah Sharifi’s family heard that distant relatives had been killed in a roadside bomb attack, they decided to pay their condolences to the survivors. On the morning of May 13, seven of them set off from Kandahar for their ancestral village of Maruf, a remote and violent district about 100 kilometres away. But sometimes in Afghanistan, tragedy begets tragedy. As they reached an area local residents call “horror valley,” their 4x4 vehicle hit a roadside bomb. Five were killed. Two were injured. The improvised bomb was set up by the Taliban to punish Sharifi for once working as a combat interpreter for the Canadian military in Kandahar. Sharifi is safe in Canada. Instead the militants took their revenge on his beloved sister, on his brother’s wife, and on his niece and two nephews, aged between 8 months and 4 years. His nephew Sharif Khan, 5, was badly hurt. “Everything that happens is God’s decision, right? He decides what to do,” said Sharifi, his voice breaking with emotion. “Everybody’s gone. Shafeeqa was my best friend and close sister.” Toronto has been Sharifi’s adopted home since July. He won a lengthy and public battle with the Canadian government to get a visa on the basis that his life was in danger because of his job as a translator from 2007 to 2010. The Star wrote extensively about Sharifi’s struggle with Ottawa, which initially rejected his claim under a special visa program set up to help Afghans who showed “individual risk” working for Canadian troops in Kandahar. He was denied after complaining to the Star about long delays and fears he would be killed before reaching safety — insurgents had threatened him and his father because of Sharifi’s work helping foreigners. Three years after Sharifi left his job, the Taliban followed through on their deadly promise. The message is clear: no matter how long it takes, the militants will exact revenge on anyone associated with foreign military forces or the Afghan government, and on their families. “My family, they are shopkeepers, college students or high school students, or teenagers or babies. I was the one person working with the military,” Sharifi said. “OK, if you want to kill somebody of my family, I was the one person. Why kill five?” He blames himself for their deaths. “I should have stayed home, stayed there with my family, but I ran far from my family,” he said. Canada withdrew combat soldiers from Afghanistan in 2011. As remaining NATO member states leave the Afghan war one by one — all fighting troops will be gone by the end of next year — insurgents are training their crosshairs on Afghans perceived to be pro-government or pro-foreign forces.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/05/21/afghan_interpreters_family_killed_by_taliban_near_kandahar.html[/url]
this is exactly why we're giving out visas to them. hopefully this will be avoided in the future.
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