04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

TORONTO, July 3: A dying Afghan boy has been flown to Canada for an urgent delicate heart surgery in Ottawa. Accompanied by his father and a Canadian military doctor, the nine-year-old Jamshid Jan 'Popal' arrived in Toronto early Tuesday morning. After a brief stopover in Hamilton, 80 kilometres west of Toronto, the trio will leave for Ottawa for the boy's operation.

Waving a miniature Canadian flag, the Afghan boy told reposers here: " I want to live on. I want to acquire education."

Popal was brought to Kabul's Attaturk Children's Hospital in the final stages of a congenital heart disease.

Canadian diplomats in Kabul granted a special visa to Popal and his father Saifullah. Cpl. Kevin Comeau, a Canadian Forces medic, was assigned to accompany the ailing boy. He made the trip via Pakistan and England with an English-Pashto dictionary and a satellite phone.