TOLOnews.com, April 1, 2015

Mourning mother of a Zabul hostage: I am now a dead body, and don't recognize day or night

"We have hiked for three days and come to Kabul so that someone can address our concerns and rescue us from this tragedy"

By Sharif Amiri

Among the 31 hostages there are two brothers - Syed Reza and Ali Gawhar - whose mother and other loved ones mourn their absence and traveled to Kabul this week to put pressure on the central government to take action in order to secure the release of the hostages.

Photo: TOLOnews.com

With well over a month gone by since the 31 travelers were abducted by masked men along the Kabul-Kandahar highway, the Afghan government continues to stall amid assurances that it is doing everything in its power to ensure their release. Yet even just the general location of where the hostages are being held has proven elusive.

The family of the two brothers who were kidnapped arrived in Kabul this week after trekking on foot from Waras district, one of the remotest districts of central Bamyan province.

"We have hiked for three days and come to Kabul so that someone can address our concerns and rescue us from this tragedy," the two boy's uncle Sarwar told TOLOnews.

Syed Reza and Ali Gawhar's mother, Masooma, has struggled to cope with the crisis facing her family. "I am now a dead body, and don't recognize day or night; I don't have any other option except to cry and scream," she said on Wednesday.

Adding further to their troubles, the family of the two abducted boys lacks the ability to support themselves in the absence of two crucial breadwinners. "We don't have a place to stay here and spend our nights inside the mosques and shops and do not have enough money to stay in a hotel," another uncle of the hostages Syed Jawad said.

Despite it all, government officials have maintained the same - increasingly dubious - line that efforts are underway to release the hostages. "We will use all options and available resources to ensure the release of our countrymen who have been taken hostage," President Ashraf Ghani's Second VP Sarwar Danish said on Wednesday.

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