I have lost two of my brothers during different wars in Afghanistan. Meer Ata Khan was my oldest brother who was a senior high school student when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He did not attend his graduation ceremony. Instead, joined Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the freedom fighters of Afghanistan fighting the Soviet occupiers. He had served for a few years with a group of freedom warriors called Group-e-Mutahrek. Its English translation would be the commandoes. He got killed in a battle at the top of one of the tallest mountains in the Valley of Panjshir in an early morning.
Meer Ata Khan
Abdullah Ayoobi was my other brother years older than me. He had an MA in Arabic Literature and Religious Studies. Upon his return back to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, he started a volunteer job with one of the social organizations, "The Union of Afghanistan Journalists" as the Director of Foreign Relations. When the Taliban took over Kabul in the mid-90s, he had to go to Panjshir where he also joined Ahmad Shah Massoud, the time the resistance leader of Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and their global networks of terrorists. After a very short time, Abdullah was promoted as a military commander in the North of Afghanistan, in Kunduz province. Shortly after, he got killed in Deh Weran district of Kunduz in an evening while in a front-line fighting the terrorists known as the Taliban. May his soul has already rested in peace.
We got close to each other as friends only months before he was killed. I admired his courage and bravery. I believe he was the best of us.
Abdullah Ayoobi
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