I almost got sick when I read this excerpt from Anthony Lloyd’s Gear article, “Karimullah’s Story”, about a Northern Alliance fighter who was handed over to the Taliban by some Pashtun villagers:

“The mullahs didn’t even ask my name or speak to the crowd. Seven doctors approached me. They wore gray uniforms, surgical masks, and gloves. I could see one was crying. They injected me. After five minutes my body was numb though I was still conscious. Then they put clamps on my hand and foot and began to cut them off with special saws. There was no pain but I could see what they were doing.”

As it turns out, this guy was not supposed to become an amputee. Instead, a captured warlord who was sentenced, paid off the mullahs to replace him with an ordinary prisoner. Karimullah, who was due to be set free, was amputated and then given a bag of apples and the equivalent of $15 in compensation.