PESHAWAR, Oct 9: A 16-year-old boy, Asadullah, who was wounded in a landmine blast incident in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, arrived here on Tuesday.

Asad lost his left leg when he stepped over a hidden mine in Sarlachi in Jalalabad. The doctors at a Jalalabad hospital, a week ago, amputated his leg from the knee.

Talking to Dawn at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Asad said he was going to the market when he accidentally stepped onto a mine, which exploded and he fell unconscious. “When I regained consciousness I was in hospital with acute pain in both my legs,” he added.

“I cried a lot when a paramedic tried to bandage my amputated leg,” the boy said to some foreign newsmen who thought him to be the first victim of the US-sponsored bombing in Afghanistan.

But, the boy’s father, an Arab speaking excellent Pashto, insisted that his son was wounded in an air raid.

Asad told Dawn that he was wounded on Sept 25 (before the American attacks) and was admitted to a local hospital in Jalalabad and shifted here on Monday. A doctor on duty also endorsed Asad’s version.

Two other people, who received bullet wounds on Monday at a protest rally in Landi Kotal, were also admitted to hospital in Hayatabad. Said Faqir, 19, who was shot in the right arm alleged that the Khasadar (tribal police) opened fire on peaceful protesters.” I was standing near a shop, when a bullet pierced through my arm and entered the chest,” he added.

Khan, 45, an apolitical man, was shot in the right thigh by Khasadar while witnessing a rally,” he said.

A doctor at the medical complex said that they have not received any war victim from Afghanistan yet.

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