Abdul Rashid (8) cries for his father who was told to wait outside while waiting on a hospital ...

Abdul Rashid (8) cries for his father who was told to wait outside while waiting on a hospital gurney outside the Nangarhar Regional Hospital's Operating Theatre prior to surgery that will smooth the bone-end of one of his amputations and close the wound so he's able to be discharged in the following days.

On April 29, 2018, while walking to school early in the morning, a group of children from the extended Mirza Gul family living in Nangarhar Province's Surkh Rod District came across what is believed to have been an unexploded rocket of some sort; perhaps a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG). There had been fighting between the Taliban, who occupy territory on Black Mountain, behind the family's compound, and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) the night before, as there is two or three times each month, according to Hamisha Gul, the father of some of the children who came upon the RPG. The family had sheltered in their home through the night. By the morning, the Taliban had escaped to their mountain redoubts as they usually do in between mounting such attacks. The children bought the rocket home, carried it inside and then took it back outside the compound gate, where one of the younger boys who'd found it dropped it at the base of the compound's high exterior wall, ten metres from the gate. It exploded, sending out hundreds of fragments of shrapnel in the midst of the group of mainly children who had followed the boy with the rocket and were about to restart their walk to school. It killed four, including 16-year-old Jalil who had recognised the the object the others had retrieved and tried to wrest it from them, Safwa (4) and her mother Brekhna (Hamisha Gul's sister), both of whom had been nearby making dung cakes for fire fuel when the rocket exploded and one of Brekhna's nieces. Hamisha Gul had moved his family from neighbouring Khogyani District eight years ago, fearing that his young children would be swept up by the strong Taliban presence in the area. He wanted them to go to school, not end up as fighters with the Taliban. The fighters who walked the streets freely in Khogyani had long hair, wore bandoliers of bullets across their chests and preached hatred of the government and anyone who supported them. Hamisha Gul worried his sons would come under their sway. Seven other children--five boys and two girls: Basir (7), Mangal (6), Aman (5), Rabia (5) and Mawa (4)--had to have at least one leg amputated, such was the bone and tissue damage. Two boys, Shafiquallah (12) and Abdul Rashid (8) lost both their legs. Since the horrific incident, the four who were killed were buried and the others have been treated at Nangarhar Regional Hospital in the province's capital, Jalalabad. Some have been discharged and sent home while three remain in hospital awaiting further surgery, with their father Hamisha Gul, who sleeps on the floor of the room they share. It is difficult to say from which side of the conflict the RPG was fired. Taken at 09:12:45