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At Kandahar's Arab cemetery, victims of the US "war on terror" are revered by many as shaheed (martyrs) and their graves are believed to possess miraculous powers.
Each day, hundreds of sick people visit the graves of more than 70 Arab and other foreign fighters and their family members who were killed in US bombing in the southern Afghan city in late 2001.
Soon after their burial, a cult developed around them and the graves became centres of pilgrimage for many in the area.
People started seeing them as miracle workers, healers and intercessors for others before God.
Six years after US-led troops ousted the Taleban, devotion to these "foreign guests" is still alive.
"Most of the visitors are sick people seeking blessings from the dead while others come hoping their social or financial problems will end," says Sangeena, a woman in her 50s who lives nearby and looks after the graves.
For the past several years, Sangeena has come to the cemetery every day. "They are martyrs and it is my duty to serve them."
'Curing the incurable'
Among the dead are Arab women and children.
Several paralysed people have left the cemetery walking on their own two feet 
Kandahar resident Sangeena
Many believe that these foreigners were "innocent" people who "died for Islam" when the US and others sent troops to Afghanistan after the attacks of 11 September, 2001.
For many, these graves are holy, and touching them will cure illnesses.
In the first couple of years, thousands of people visited the cemetery daily.
Surprised by the response, local authorities sent armed policemen to discourage people from visiting.
But the cemetery's fame has reached many remote areas of Afghanistan and even the border areas of neighbouring Pakistan.
There is an area earmarked for women
"People get cured here, that is why they come to the cemetery," says Samad, one young visitor.
Many people talk about miracles that have happened in the cemetery.
Some say many sick people who had lost all hope of recovery were miraculously cured within moments of their first visit.
"Several paralysed people have left the cemetery walking on their own two feet," says Sangeena.
The "cure" is simple - each visitor takes a pinch of salt from one of the many small bowls and eats it. It is believed that the salt has a special connection with the dead and will cure any illness.
Respecting the dead
The graves of Arab fighters who helped sweep the Taleban to power in the 1990s are part of the main cemetery at the edge of the city.
They are clearly marked and neatly built with white stones covering them and green flags fluttering on bamboo poles. In one mass grave, about 20 bodies have been buried together.
Believers say the graves have healing powers
"The security situation didn't allow for digging separate graves for each one of them," says a resident of the city.
"As Muslims, it was our duty to bury them with respect."
A few metres from the main mass grave is the tomb of an Arab woman where women tend to go and pray.
From a distance, I could see an ill woman lying there next to the grave.
Veneration of saints, both male and female, and pilgrimages to their shrines and graves to seek blessing, represent an important aspect of popular Islam in many Muslim societies, including Afghanistan.
People visit the Kandahar cemetery to pray quietly and contemplate - and hope for the best.
I am told that in the summer, some visitors from remote areas even spend the night at the cemetery, sleeping under the open sky.
Gul Khan, a university graduate, says the cemetery's popularity also has to do with the fact that most people are poor and have little or no access to health facilities.
"Generally people in this area believe in such things. Once the fame of a shrine or a person having 'miraculous powers' spreads, then more and more people are attracted to that."
Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, fighting has destroyed much of Afghanistan's basic infrastructure.
Post-Taleban reconstruction has made little or no impact in many remote areas.
In a country with high unemployment and low literacy rates, it does not seem surprising that shrines are still the only hope for many sick and needy people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7193579.stm
Portraits of Kandahar - Kandahar Cemetery - 7 Feb 08
news:www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KrCq7BCmgs
Pashtun member of Afghanforums by the name of mano making some great points as follows:-
"oh yes all Afghans need now is to worship at the tomb of some filthy arab tramps and their children
do you know these arabs were probably all the filthy wives of al qaida dogs who used our coutries as a launching pad for war with their own enemies
the bodies should all be exumed and shipped to the crap holes of some arab nation
as if these arab **** bags have not imposed enough of Afghans
i bet you they were all fat and well fed too
while they made themselves at home in our country bringing their plump sweaty wives to live in Afg "
Second comment
"these arabs were a bunch of thugs and criminals who came to our country to subjugate our people and use our home as a lanuch pad for war since apparently their own countries are too scared to launch wars from. being dead doesn't make you holy or respectabble
there a millions of bechara innocent Afghans who die daily with no help form anyone least of all the greasy oil billionaires of arab crapholes and i don't see you shedding a tear over it
and the very idea that Afghans should spend one cent on dead arab **** is a real joke. just cremate them and throw them away, don't leave them in a marked area for imbeciles to worship and wring their hands over
they are criminals who committed crimes against our country and our people yet you propose that we should wring our hands over them? worry about respecting them? all this while millions of hungry Afghans die in the crossfire between some greasy arab and his american enemies?
you're a real clown lala jon
what country affords foreign crinimals this luxury? even withinin their own nations criminals don't get this much service
becauuse of clowns like you Afghanistan is on fire today and for 30 years now!
please go and cry for arabs some more"
http://www.*****************/showthread.php?t=20550
Each day, hundreds of sick people visit the graves of more than 70 Arab and other foreign fighters and their family members who were killed in US bombing in the southern Afghan city in late 2001.
Soon after their burial, a cult developed around them and the graves became centres of pilgrimage for many in the area.
People started seeing them as miracle workers, healers and intercessors for others before God.
Six years after US-led troops ousted the Taleban, devotion to these "foreign guests" is still alive.
"Most of the visitors are sick people seeking blessings from the dead while others come hoping their social or financial problems will end," says Sangeena, a woman in her 50s who lives nearby and looks after the graves.
For the past several years, Sangeena has come to the cemetery every day. "They are martyrs and it is my duty to serve them."
'Curing the incurable'
Among the dead are Arab women and children.
Several paralysed people have left the cemetery walking on their own two feet Kandahar resident Sangeena
Many believe that these foreigners were "innocent" people who "died for Islam" when the US and others sent troops to Afghanistan after the attacks of 11 September, 2001.
For many, these graves are holy, and touching them will cure illnesses.
In the first couple of years, thousands of people visited the cemetery daily.
Surprised by the response, local authorities sent armed policemen to discourage people from visiting.
But the cemetery's fame has reached many remote areas of Afghanistan and even the border areas of neighbouring Pakistan.
There is an area earmarked for women"People get cured here, that is why they come to the cemetery," says Samad, one young visitor.
Many people talk about miracles that have happened in the cemetery.
Some say many sick people who had lost all hope of recovery were miraculously cured within moments of their first visit.
"Several paralysed people have left the cemetery walking on their own two feet," says Sangeena.
The "cure" is simple - each visitor takes a pinch of salt from one of the many small bowls and eats it. It is believed that the salt has a special connection with the dead and will cure any illness.
Respecting the dead
The graves of Arab fighters who helped sweep the Taleban to power in the 1990s are part of the main cemetery at the edge of the city.
They are clearly marked and neatly built with white stones covering them and green flags fluttering on bamboo poles. In one mass grave, about 20 bodies have been buried together.
Believers say the graves have healing powers"The security situation didn't allow for digging separate graves for each one of them," says a resident of the city.
"As Muslims, it was our duty to bury them with respect."
A few metres from the main mass grave is the tomb of an Arab woman where women tend to go and pray.
From a distance, I could see an ill woman lying there next to the grave.
Veneration of saints, both male and female, and pilgrimages to their shrines and graves to seek blessing, represent an important aspect of popular Islam in many Muslim societies, including Afghanistan.
People visit the Kandahar cemetery to pray quietly and contemplate - and hope for the best.
I am told that in the summer, some visitors from remote areas even spend the night at the cemetery, sleeping under the open sky.
Gul Khan, a university graduate, says the cemetery's popularity also has to do with the fact that most people are poor and have little or no access to health facilities.
"Generally people in this area believe in such things. Once the fame of a shrine or a person having 'miraculous powers' spreads, then more and more people are attracted to that."
Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, fighting has destroyed much of Afghanistan's basic infrastructure.
Post-Taleban reconstruction has made little or no impact in many remote areas.
In a country with high unemployment and low literacy rates, it does not seem surprising that shrines are still the only hope for many sick and needy people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7193579.stm
Portraits of Kandahar - Kandahar Cemetery - 7 Feb 08
news:www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KrCq7BCmgs
Pashtun member of Afghanforums by the name of mano making some great points as follows:-
"oh yes all Afghans need now is to worship at the tomb of some filthy arab tramps and their children
do you know these arabs were probably all the filthy wives of al qaida dogs who used our coutries as a launching pad for war with their own enemies
the bodies should all be exumed and shipped to the crap holes of some arab nation
as if these arab **** bags have not imposed enough of Afghans
i bet you they were all fat and well fed too
while they made themselves at home in our country bringing their plump sweaty wives to live in Afg "
Second comment
"these arabs were a bunch of thugs and criminals who came to our country to subjugate our people and use our home as a lanuch pad for war since apparently their own countries are too scared to launch wars from. being dead doesn't make you holy or respectabble
there a millions of bechara innocent Afghans who die daily with no help form anyone least of all the greasy oil billionaires of arab crapholes and i don't see you shedding a tear over it
and the very idea that Afghans should spend one cent on dead arab **** is a real joke. just cremate them and throw them away, don't leave them in a marked area for imbeciles to worship and wring their hands over
they are criminals who committed crimes against our country and our people yet you propose that we should wring our hands over them? worry about respecting them? all this while millions of hungry Afghans die in the crossfire between some greasy arab and his american enemies?
you're a real clown lala jon
what country affords foreign crinimals this luxury? even withinin their own nations criminals don't get this much service
becauuse of clowns like you Afghanistan is on fire today and for 30 years now!
please go and cry for arabs some more"
http://www.*****************/showthread.php?t=20550
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