Grieving Afghan mother's bloody revenge: 25 Taliban killed

• 
• 
  
• Reza Gul looked on as the militants attacked her son's police checkpoint 
• Flanked by her husband,son, daughter and daughter in law she led the fightback  
• The Taliban remain tight lipped about the attack  

Sumi Khan ,28 November 2014

Reza Gul (right) and her daughter Fatima killed 25 members of the Taliban after watching them kill her son. Source: YouTube

The incident happened early in the morning around 5a.m on November 17 in the Balabolok district, in the Farah province of western Afghanistan, near the border with Iran.

"It was around 5am when my son's check post came under the attack of Taliban," the mother, Reza Gul, told Afghan television network, TOLOnews. "When the fighting intensified, I couldn't stop myself and picked up a weapon, went to the check post and began shooting back."Her maternal instincts took over after seeing her son Safiullah lying dead in front of her eyes, after a gun battle with the Taliban. However, she was not acting alone: a number of family members, including her husband, daughter and youngest son, rushed along to help and provided her with ammunition.

"The fighting intensified when we reached the battlefield along with light and heavy weapons,"said Reza Gul’s daughter-in-law, Seema, according to TOLOnews. "We were committed to fight until the last bullet." She added that the intense fighting lasted a number of hours, with 25 militants left dead and others wounded.

Flanked by her daughter and daughter-in-law, the grieving mother took bloody revenge saying she had no choice but to grab a weapon, starting a seven-hour gun battle.'It was around 5am when my son’s check post came under the attack of Taliban,” Gul told TOLO News.'When the fighting intensified, I couldn’t stop myself and picked up a weapon, went to the check post and began shooting back.”Gul’s husband, daughter, youngest son and daughter-in-law accompanied the grieving mother in the fight, eventually taking out 25 Taliban insurgents.'We started a kind of family war against the Taliban,” Fatima, Gul’s daughter said.'The fighting was intensified when we reached the battlefield along with light and heavy weapons,” said Seema, the daughter-in-law.'We were committed to fight until the last bullet.”

 
The family battle took place by their home in the Farah province, one of the most volatile areas in western Afghanistan where anti-government militants are actively operating.

AN Afghan mother took on the Taliban killing 25 militants after witnessing her son being killed in a fierce gunbattle.Woken by gunfire, Reza Gul looked on as her son, a police officer, was gunned down by Taliban as he manned a village checkpoint.

A grieving Afghan mother took bloody revenge on the Taliban militants who gunned down her son, killing 25 and injuring five of them during a seven hour gun battle. 

Reza Gul watched helplessly as her son died while he manned a village checkpoint with his small team of police officers in the lawless Farah province.

But flanked by her daughter and daughter-in-law, she led a counter strike on his attackers killing 25 militants and wounding another five during a ferocious seven hour gun battle.

Scroll down for video 

Reza Gul (center), her daughter Fatima (left) and daughter-in-law Seema, killed 25 members of of the Taliban after watching them gun down her son

Fatima Gul, who also took up arms against the Taliban after her brother was killed during a Taliban raid on his police checkpoint in the Farah province

From left to right, Fatima, Seema and Reza Gul battled for seven hours against Taliban forces after they attacked a police checkpoint, manned by Reza's son 

Grieving Afghan mother speaks of moment she fought back

'I couldn't stop myself and picked up a weapon,' Gul told TOLO News. 'I went to the check post and began shooting back.'

Her daughter-in-law Seema added: 'The fighting was intensified when we reached the battlefield along with light and heavy weapons. We were committed to fight until the last bullet.'

She added that the combats zone was strewn with Taliban bodies when the fighting was over.  

A spokesman for the Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior told the agency it was a symbol of a public uprising. 

The Taliban is yet to comment about the incident.

Alongside other insurgent groups, the Taliban have escalated attacks across the country since the withdrawal of most of the US led forces from the country last month. 

Targeting, government, security and foreign installations, especially in the country's capital Kabul, members of the public have also been caught in the crossfire. 

Legendary folk hero Malalai of Maiwand

Malalai
Afghan heroine of Maiwand

While in Britain, no one has heard of her, in Afghanstan Malalai (or Malala) is a legend. Smaller facts in the story vary slightly, but although it is Ayub Khan who became known as the Victor of Maiwand, it is said that it was Malalai who actually saved the day.

She was a native of Khig, a tiny village on the edge of the Maiwand battlefield, and the daughter of a shepard. Both her father and fiancée joined with Ayub's army in the attack on the British on July 27th 1880 (which some say was also her wedding day), and like many women, Malalai was there to help tend to the wounded and provide water and spare weapons. Eventually there came a point in the battle where the Afghan army, despite their superior numbers, started to lose morale and the tide seemed to be turning in favour of the British. Seeing this, Malalai took off her veil and shouted out:

"Young love! If you do not fall in the battle of Maiwand,By God, someone is saving you as a symbol of shame!"

This gave many of the Afghan fighters and ghazis a new resolve and they redoubled their efforts. At that moment one of the leading flag-bearers fell from a British bullet, and Malalai went forward and held up the flag (some versions say she made a flag out of her veil), singing a landai:

"With a drop of my sweetheart's blood, Shed in defense of the Motherland, Will I put a beauty spot on my forehead, Such as would put to shame the rose in the garden,"

But then Malalai was herself struck down and killed. However, her words had spurred on her countrymen and soon the British lines gave way, broke and turned, leading to a disastrous retreat back to Kandahar and the biggest defeat for the Anglo-Indian army in the Second Afghan War. Ayub Khan afterwards gave a special honour to Malalai and she was buried at her village, where her grave can still be found.
British sources, unsurprisingly, do not mention Malalai. Her actions may not have been noticed by any of the British, or they may not have seemed as consequential as they were to the Afghans. Afghan women are very rarely mentioned at all in the reports and narratives of the war (Hensman mentions that one woman was found among the dead at Ahmed Khel). Interestingly, it is the Afghans who provide some of the evidence for one of the other legends born at the battle of Maiwand, as it is from one of Ayub's artillery colonels that we learn some of the details of the famous last stand of the 66th, clutching to their company colours, in a Khig garden, where indeed the fallen bodies were later found to be lying.
As well as Malalai, there were many other factors in the Afgan's favour on that day, including preferential terrain and positioning, superior numbers, skilled use of outnumbering artillery, and perhaps some bad decisions on the British side of things. But certainly her actions were enough to turn her into a national hero where she is still revered today. Schools, hospitals and even a women's magazine have been named after her. It is also a popular girl's name, with Malalai Joya a rare female voice in post-Taliban Afghan politics.

Article by Garen Ewing ©2005.