-Victim’s Name: Abdullah Frotan
-Place of Incident: Dehmazang Square, Kabul
-Date of Incident: 23 July 2016
“Abdullah was 18 years old. It was his life-long dream to study Engineering. After scoring the highest mark in the nation-wide university entrance exam (Kankor), his dream turned into a reality, and he began his studies in Afghanistan’s most prestigious Engineering University.
The night before the July 23 Enlightenment Movement rally, I called him and told him to avoid joining the protest the next day, as the security situation was not good. He said: “don’t worry, we are not alone.” I asked him again not to join the demonstration, but focus on his exams instead, but he refused. On the day of the protest, Abdullah, my two other brothers and I joined the rally. As we were marching with thousands of others, we were taking selfies. Abdullah was taller than all of us, and also more talented.
Around 2PM, I left the protest and went to eat. While I was having lunch, a friend rang to tell me that twin suicide bombers had hit the rally in Dehmazang square. I started calling my brothers, including Abdullah, but none answered my calls. I ran to Dehmazang. I was looking everywhere to find my brothers, but I couldn’t find any of them. I saw blood and mutilated bodies scattered all over the square. Then my elder brother called to see if I was alive. He told me to go to the hospital to check if Abdullah was there. I went to the hospital and searched, but could not find him. My brother then told me to go and check the dead bodies. When I entered to the room full of dead bodies, I could not search because it was difficult to stand. My legs were numb and I was in shock, looking at the bloody and breathless faces of my friends who had just been marching for change. I told my brother that Abdullah was not there. My elder brother arrived and we went to look for Abdullah among the injured. We discovered Abdullah, critically injured. Shrapnel hit his brain and remained stuck there. We immediately took him to Wazir Akbar Khan hospital. He was there for a week but nothing changed. During this time, he did not open his eyes even once. Abdullah died in the hospital a week after the incident. We buried him in the Enlightenment Cemetery, where 85 others were buried, who were killed in the same incident.”
