A few days ago, Taliban gunmen shot and killed as 10-year-old Wasil Ahmad, who was held up as a hero by his fellow Afghans for leading a militia’s defense against a Taliban siege last year.
A man on a motorcycle shot Ahmad in the head as he walked out of his house in Tarinkot in Urozgan Province, an agricultural intersection of Pashtun tribes. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility.
The boy just left militia life to enroll in the fourth grade and was no threat to the terror group, a spokesman for the Afghan independent human rights commission told the New York Times.
The boy’s uncle is a former Taliban commander who switched sides to support the Afghan government, along with 36 of his followers, one of which was the young boy’s father. His uncle, Mullah Abdul Samad, was appointed commander of the local police militia and soon became the government’s main force fighting the Taliban in the Oruzgan province. The Taliban laid siege to Samad’s district in 2015. Young Wasil Ahmad’s father was killed in that fighting and so Wasil took command of the garrison’s defense.
“He fought like a miracle,” Samad told the New York Times, adding that Wasil had fired rockets from a roof. “He was successfully leading my men on my behalf for 44 days until I recovered.”