14 DAY TRIAL // A Soviet soldier, declared missing during the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, has been located 33 years later, with a nomadic clan.
Non-profit organization, the Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee found the army man, as part of their project of locating 264 Soviet soldiers currently missing in action.
Bakhretdin Khakimov was going by the name Sheikh Abdulla, and worked as a healer for the clan from Shindand District, Ria Novosti writes.
He had since been married and was a widower, living in poverty. The organization had received information about the Uzbek soldier one year ago, and had been trying to track him down ever since.
“Looking for missing soldiers is among our top priorities. And it’s a tough job,” committee head Ruslan Aushev describes.
The group gets most of its information from Mujahedin fighters, Aushev’s deputy Alexander Lavrentyev explains. The former militants are trying to repay the Soviets for their involvement in building schools and road work, during the time of their occupation.
“Those who were shooting at us are the only ones to have information – and they share it.
“We get very good treatment. They tell us, ‘Come back, just without the firearms. We respect you,’” Lavrentyev details.
He adds that the non-profit has located 29 missing Soviet servicemen in Afghanistan so far, 8 of whom chose to stay in the country. While others preferred to be returned home, Khakimov wished to remain and resume his activities there.
He was only 20 years old when he was left behind, after incurring a serious head injury during a fight in Shindand.
An Afghani healer and village elder was able to restore his health, even taking care of the young man as if he were his own son. He then passed on his healing techniques to him.
“He was just happy he survived,” Lavrentyev said, after meeting with Khakimov in February, in Herat.