Minutes after entering the Iman Zaman mosque in west Kabul, 13-year-old Murtaza was an orphan, his parents among the victims of a suicide bomber who entered the mosque as the congregation were in the middle of Friday prayers.
“I had just stepped outside the mosque when I heard the blast,” he told the The National. “All I remember is seeing the bodies being brought out and hearing gunfire.”
His account of the next 24-hours is at times incoherent. He remembers searching for his mother and father among the bodies lining the bloodied corridors. On Saturday, he helped to bury them in a mass grave but beside each other. At 13, Murtaza is now the head of his household, responsible for his three sisters.
“We are still in our house as of now, but I don’t know who will look after us later,” he said.
Murtaza’s plight was tweeted by Khalid Ahmad Noori, a senior producer for the BBC World Service based in Kabul.
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