Author: Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 16, 2001
She cooks for her husband, looks
after the house, goes shopping and loves to write. So what, don't all women
do it? They may, but not everyone, rather no one, is Sushmita Banerjee.
After all, how many can claim the credit of having taken the Taliban bull
by its horns?
Sushmita did exactly that, albeit
trembling with fear for her life. But her days in the Taliban land is something
the Kolkata-bred woman is unlikely to get over, however much she wishes
to forget it as a bad dream. Even today, the very thought of her seven-year
experience in Afghanistan and the cruelty unleashed by the Taliban militia
sends a shiver down her spine.
Life seemed great when Sushmita
eloped with Jaanbaaz Khan, an Afghan working as a moneylender in Kolkata.
Soon after their marriage in 1989, the couple went to live with his parents
in Sarana village near Ghazni. But Khan soon returned to Kolkata to look
after his business, leaving his young bride under his parents' care. Recalling
the years of torture, Sushmita said, "The Taliban is more dangerous than
one can imagine. Had I not seen them, I would never have believed that
such cruel people exist."
When Sushmita went to live in Afghanistan,
communist Najibullah was ruling the country. "He was fighting the Mujahideens
with the help of Russia. There was hardly a moment when one didn't hear
the sound of canons," she recalled, adding that peace proved elusive even
after the Mujahideens captured power by deposing Najibullah. With the passing
of time, internal strife only became more intense and a civil war broke
out.
This is when the Taliban made its
entry. "Taking advantage of the situation, the militia came, saying they
were messiahs of peace. The battle-scarred people, not suspecting the motive,
welcomed the outfit, for, after all they were talking of bringing peace.
That day in 1992 when around 25
Taliban personnel entered Sarana village is still vivid in Sushmita's mind.
"They took shelter in the local mosque. They then went house to house saying
that they were trying to bring peace and anyone opposing them would be
killed. That's when their mask fell off, revealing that the Taliban militia
was in the country only to make life even more miserable," she said. Every
house in the village had to take turns to feed them. "I used to cook dumba
meat and make rotis for them," she revealed.
Trouble began soon for Sushmita
as the militants realised that she was a Hindu and had not converted to
Islam despite being married to an Afghan. "I became an eyesore for them
and they were hell bent on converting me. Almost everyday, their leader
Abdul Malik would come and threaten me. He would slap me, pull my hair
and insult me. No one dared to help me," she recalled.
Soon came the Taliban way of fife
- everything was forced upon citizens in the name of Islam. Men had to
grow beards, wear turbans, go to mosque and pray five times a day while
women had to wear burqa and be accompanied by a male member everytime they
stepped out of their homes. Even the local maulvis were removed and Taliban
men posted in the mosques. Anyone defying their orders were beaten up.
Fed up of living the life of a prisoner
in her own house, Sushmita tried to escape twice - in April and July, 1995.
As luck would have it, she fell into the Taliban hands both the times.
On the first occasion, she was locked
and beaten up to ensure that she accepted Islam. When it happened again,
the Taliban decided that they would simply put an end to it. They chained
her and passed the death sentence. "I was to be shot dead. But before that
I was to be converted. Around 15 Taliban soldiers read from the Koran as
I waited. They had placed their arms on the ground while reading from the
holy book. I quickly picked up an AK 47 and threatened to shoot at random.
Pointing the weapon at them, I just ran, and kept running till I reached
the Indian embassy in Islamabad." There she explained her position and
the authorities action swiftly. Finally, her travails ended soon and she
was sent back to Delhi.
