Afghan Family Dies in Attack on Market
By ROD NORDLAND
Published: January 29, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty-four hours after a Taliban suicide bomber attacked the Finest Supermarket here, the family’s silver Toyota Corolla was still parked in front.
Michael Kamber for The New York Times
Funerals for Dr. Massoud Yama, his wife, Hamida Barmaki, and their children took place Saturday in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Humayoun Shiab/European Pressphoto Agency
The police inspected damage from a separate suicide bombing on Saturday that killed the deputy governor of Kandahar Province.
There was no one left to claim it.
The car belonged to Massoud Yama, a medical doctor who worked in the Finance Ministry. Dr. Yama, his wife, Hamida Barmaki, a lawyer and human rights advocate, and all four of their children died in the attack.
“The whole family is gone,” said Asila Wardak, who works on human rights for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Unfortunately, this is what happens in Afghanistan, and we have to go on.”
Ms. Barmaki was a law professor at Kabul University and a commissioner in charge of children’s rights issues for theAfghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. In one of her public-spirited passions, she had worked for the past year to rid the security services of child soldiers and child sexual abuse; that work led to an accord that was scheduled to be signed Sunday.
The four children included three daughters, the oldest 14, and a son, age 2.
All six of them were apparently standing near the suicide bomber when he detonated his explosive vest; they were among what now appears to be at least 14 dead from the attack, nine Afghans and five foreigners who remain unidentified, according to an Afghan police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of his department’s policies. There was confusion among officials, however, on the exact death toll, especially since the damage was so extensive that not all of the bodies recovered were complete or easily identifiable.
The police official said that before detonating his explosives, the suicide bomber opened fire inside the supermarket with an automatic rifle and tossed three or more grenades into the aisles. The Finest, one of two branches of a supermarket carrying imported foods and heavily frequented by the international community, is located in the Wazir Ahbar Khan neighborhood, near several Western embassies.
News reports that two Americans were among the victims remained unconfirmed late Saturday. “We have no information to indicate that any Americans, either private citizens or government officials, were among those killed,” said Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Kabul.
Another suicide bombing, on Saturday morning in southern Afghanistan, claimed the life of the deputy governor of Kandahar Province. Shortly after the deputy governor, Abdul Latif Ashna, left home on his way to the office, officials said, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle pulled alongside his unarmored car and detonated his explosives. Mr. Ashna was killed instantly, and two bodyguards and a driver were seriously wounded.
“These sorts of attacks are the ugliest in terrorism, and it is hard to totally control them,” the Kandahar governor, Tooryalai Wesa, said at a news conference later Saturday. “Mr. Ashna knew and understood the risks that officials face in Kandahar city, and accepted those risks for the sake of his people and country. His loss is a great sadness for all of us.”
In Kabul, thousands of mourners braved a cold rain on Saturday when Dr. Yama, Ms. Barmaki and their children were buried in the Shuhadai Saleheen cemetery on the edge of the city. Street children came with pitchers of water to sprinkle on the fresh earth in exchange for alms. The water is to make mud to seal the grave. Two large plastic bags of bloody clothing were buried separately on the same plot, apparently because of the difficulty of completely separating remains from the cloth.
A colleague from the human rights commission, Ahmad Nader Nadery, struggled to control his emotions as he spoke of Ms. Barmaki. She had gone with her family to Italy in 2007 to study for a master’s degree and then returned to Afghanistan in 2008. “Her brothers were trying to persuade her to stay abroad, have a good education and a good life for her family, but she resisted these requests and returned back,” Mr. Nadery said.
Her work to end the recruitment of children by the Afghan police force and the use of boy sex slaves by military officials was just coming to fruition. (She had planned to give an interview to The New York Times on that subject later on Saturday.) In addition to her human rights commission work and teaching, she set up a training center for young lawyers, ran a charity that provided free legal aid to the poor and was trying to establish a post-graduate program in legal studies, Mr. Nadery said.
Ms. Barmaki had been offered a fellowship in Germany this year, but decided against it so she could continue her work here. “She was loved by everybody,” Mr. Nadery said. “She was a very humble person, very quiet and soft-spoken, but when she did speak, it was with great force and authority.”
He described the family as close-knit and happy. “When they left their house yesterday, on their way to the supermarket, her daughter was skipping down the stairs and singing a song,” he said. “Half an hour later this happened.”
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