We are attacked. A Personal Story.

I work full-time and study at the American University of Afghanistan at the evening. I had a bad day at the work, a stressful and a very tired one. It was second day of the fall semester. I came earlier to the university to get books from the textbook store.

It was 5PM and I went to my public speaking class. The professor stepped in, the smile on her face was amazing. She started with the introduction and promised us that she will help us with the public speaking skills. It was almost the end of the class, she asked us to repeat “I can do it, I am amazing, I can deliver the best public speech, I can do it.” She wanted us to believe in ourselves before coming to the next class.

It was 6:40PM and we had a 10 mins break before we have to go to the other class which was anthropology. I met a friend, he asked me to fix his phone. I promised “I will do it after 8PM when I am done with the class”. and so I went to the anthropology class. Same introduction and the beginning of the first chapter. The professor “Bruce Josephen” introduced himself and started to describe the syllabus. It was 7:20PM when Mr. Bruce, asked us to open the book and go to page 5. We were asked to read a portion of the page. We didn’t have public electricity and the university was running on generators. It could only manage to light up the lights, projectors and a few other devices. But couldn’t manage to run air conditioners, so we had to open the windows. Just a few minutes later, we heard an explosion and felt the waves. Since, we had the windows open the waves came through, shacked the ceiling, shut the door hardly and the lights went off but luckily it didn’t break the glasses. It was so dark, we stood up and immediately understood that we are under attack. I was at the last row, I stood and tried opening the door. It was stuck. I looked back and saw that I have left my bag and phone, I went to grab them. I came back and saw the door open. The hall was full of students both male and female. We were stunned what to do. A professor, said “Don’t worry, we are not attacked. It was outside.” he then asked us to move slowly and not to hurt each other.

We started moving slowly, and then we heard gun shots. That was the moment, we felt it was not just an explosion. We knew they have made their way in and we started running. While running for help, I wanted to call my dad and tell him about the incident so that if something happens to me he should know where he can find me. I could see girls crying, boys shouting and some even shocked, stunned and couldn’t move. We somehow, managed to get to the emergency exit. It wasn’t just that. The exit was a land covered by bushes, I was running and was thinking what if someone is waiting ahead for us to come. and shoot us. But, we had no other option so we moved ahead. We couldn’t get to the main street directly, so we had to choose the maze alleys and run for almost 25 minutes. On our way, there were people guiding us which way to go. I had to run and make calls on the way. After having a hard time, I did manage to get to a place far from the university. I took a taxi and went home.

But that wasn’t the end. I reached home by 9Pm. I was so worried about my close friends and had to call them constantly. I didn’t sleep the whole night, I had to follow-up with friends and my class mates. At the same time, have their families know about their condition. They were stuck inside for 10 hours until 4:15 AM of the morning. Some of them jumped from the building, some were killed, some wounded and some escaped. A friend of mine who later jumped from the building and managed to escape told me “We were at the third floor. We locked the door and had chairs and desks behind it. Suddenly the insurgent threw a grenade. I had no other option but to jump from the third floor. He survived but broke his leg.

Another friend who was later rescued by the military told me “There were too many deaths. I laid down and had the bodies over me. I heard one of the insurgents telling the other shoot the dead bodies. He said no don’t waste the bullets. We will throw a grenade at last. They somehow forgot to do that and I survived.”.

13 of the students were killed and almost 40 were wounded. By 4AM the military managed to kill the last suicide attacker and rescue the hostages.