He has a job as a painting contractor, his oldest boy has started school and, last month, his wife gave birth to a son. The Taliban, who had threatened Ahmadi because he was working for Canadian forces in Kandahar, are now a distant threat. “So far, I feel happy here,” he said. But he admits his fresh start has been bittersweet because of the absence of his daughter, Nazifa. The Taliban killed her at a military checkpoint on December 10, a painful reminder of the dangers of leaving allies behind. The family had applied to come to Canada four months earlier but had not yet been evacuated. Story continues below ad Nazifa Ahmadi, left, was killed by the Taliban on Dec. 10 while her family waited to be evacuated to Canada. Family Brochure. The fatal shooting of the 10-year-old shows the dangers Afghans face as they wait for the Canadian government to honor its pledge to resettle former military, diplomatic and humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan. In the days after Nazifa’s murder, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said her death should “shock the conscience of every Canadian” and vowed to “keep our commitment to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees, whatever it takes.” ». But a year after the Taliban took over the country, thousands of Afghans are still trying to reach Canada. While 17,000 have arrived since the armed group took power on August 15, 2021, many say they fear Canada has abandoned them.
Read more: A year after Taliban rule, Afghans fear Canada has left them behind
Story continues below ad Fraser defended the government in an interview last week, telling Global News it had brought a “huge number” of Afghans to Canada and blamed the Taliban for delays. “Every time we take a step forward, we have the Taliban trying to push back,” he said. An agreement to allow Afghans heading to Canada to transit through Pakistan was reached in June, he said. But the Taliban then said they would not allow the Afghans to leave unless they were issued a passport first. “You can imagine someone trying to hide from (the Taliban) as a result of violence or persecution is not very keen to ask for their help in getting a passport,” Fraser said. “These are the challenges we continue to work on.” Nazifa Ahmadi’s family believes the Taliban killed her because her father worked for the Canadian Forces. Family Brochure. In his first interview since fleeing Afghanistan, Ahmadi told Global News he was convinced the Taliban targeted his family because he worked for Canada. Between 2006 and 2011, he was a carpenter at Canada’s Graceland military base in Kandahar. The Taliban threatened him at the time. A letter sent to his home warned him to resign. Story continues below ad As the US military withdrew last August and the Afghan government collapsed, Ahmadi felt he was in danger and moved his family to Kabul. He hoped to take them to Canada, but found chaos. Evacuation efforts faltered and a suicide bomber attacked the crowd gathered outside the airport, killing more than 170. He applied for Canada’s special immigration program for Afghans who had served the government and said he received an email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) telling him the family needed passports. So they went back to Kandahar to get them. While there, they attended a cousin’s wedding. They left the reception in two cars. Nazifa was a passenger in the lead vehicle while Ahmadi followed behind with his cousin Aziz Tarin at the wheel. At around 11 pm, shootings broke out. Taryn turned into a side street and stopped the car. Then his brother-in-law, who was driving the lead vehicle, called. He said the Taliban opened fire on their car.
Read more: Inside the Kabul safe houses where Afghans wait to be evacuated to Canada
Tarin and Ahamdi rushed there to find the car on fire. Nazifa had been shot in the head and leg. Their aunt was still inside. She was dead too. The Taliban arrived but just stood back and watched, said Tarin, who said he was a former Canadian Forces interpreter. “I yelled at them, ‘What are you waiting for?’ But they didn’t help me,” he said. Story continues below ad The car had passed a checkpoint moments before the Taliban opened fire. The vehicle did not stop, but the Taliban flashed a flashlight into the faces of those inside. Bullets had hit the car from four directions. For Ahmadi and Tarin, the circumstances suggested a targeted attack, intended to punish them for their work for international forces. They took the survivors to the hospital and decided to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. On January 21, the Canadian organization Aman Lara, which helps fleeing Afghans, picked them up after dark and drove them east on the Kabul-Jalalabad road, through the treacherous mountain pass into Nangarhar province, the former home of al-Qaeda . In Torkhum, they waited in line for 12 hours before reaching the border post. A problem arose because their visas were only valid for a different border crossing, but the Pakistanis finally let them through and drove them to Islamabad. Trucks entering Pakistan at the Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Torkham, northwest Pakistan on September 3, 2021. Credit: Ahmad Kamal/Xinhua via ZUMA Press For two months they stayed in a hostel in the capital while they waited for IRCC to finish processing their applications. On April 21, six months after first applying to come to Canada, they finally boarded a charter flight to Calgary. Story continues below ad Ahmadi rented an apartment in a quiet complex in Edmonton, where 825 Afghans settled last year, compared with 3,240 in Calgary and another 65 in Airdrie, Lethbridge and Red Deer. Friends from Afghanistan live in the same building. There is a school nearby and shops in town where he can buy the bread that is the mainstay of Afghan meals. A green belt leads to the North Saskatchewan River and the Rockies can be seen to the southwest. He chose Edmonton because he knew other Afghans there, but the familiar geography also provided some comfort. The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, 2021. Stewart Bell/Global News IRCC said in a statement that it remains committed to bringing 40,000 Afghans to Canada by 2024, but said the agency faced challenges in getting them out of Afghanistan and ensuring communities were ready to “help them integrate successfully.” . Tarin, 24, lives with his wife in the same apartment building as his cousin Ahmadi. He doesn’t have a work permit yet. Sitting on the floor in his apartment, sipping saffron tea, he said he wanted to finish the political science degree he started at Kandahar University and pursue a career in the Canadian government. In the meantime, he is trying to get his extended family to Canada. Story continues below ad Ahmadi also said his brothers are still in danger under the Taliban. He was trying to help them leave, but said their immigration cases have gone nowhere. He fears they will suffer the same fate as Nazifa at the hands of a vengeful Taliban. “My main concern is to bring them here to Canada,” he said. Bashir Ahmadi, who worked for the Canadian Forces in Kandahar, holds his newborn son in Edmonton, August 11, 2022. Stewart Bell/Global News There is no shrine for Nazifa in the Ahmadi apartment. The family does not memorialize her in any way. It is very painful. All they have are the photos and videos on their phones. Their older son asks about his older sister. Ahmadi tells him they had to leave her behind. “You can imagine how you feel,” Ahmadi said through an interpreter. “I am fine here, but I feel unhappy because my daughter is not here. I feel anxious, I feel crazy because I lost a loved one.” Story continues below ad He has hopes for his sons, aged eight, three and one month. He wants them to be educated and “become something, a doctor, an engineer.” It was late but he went into his apartment and let them out. The three-year-old flashed the peace sign. Ahmadi cradled the baby in his arms. His name is Mohammad Siraj. In Arabic it means light. Ahmadi said it was a statement from a family that lost but made a promising new beginning. “That’s why I chose that name,” he said. “Because I feel happy in Canada.” [email protected] © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
