Young Afghan Messi fan threatened by Taliban
3,919 views · Published 12 December 2018 · 2:14 · Indexed 15 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(7 Dec 2018) A young Afghan football fan who shot to fame after he was photographed in a Messi shirt made from a plastic bag has been forced to flee with his family to the capital after criminal gangs and the Taliban threatened to kill or kidnap him, his mother said on Friday. Last November, when Taliban fighters launched attacks in their home district of Joguri in violent Ghazni province, the family fled to the relative safety of Bamiyan province in Central Afghanistan, but the threats continued. Murtaza is the youngest of five children and the family is paying the equivalent of about 90 US dollars a month for a room in the Afshar neighbourhood in northwest Kabul. Since becoming an internet sensation, Shafiqa Ahmedi said her now 7-year-old son Murtaza - a fan of Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi - has not been able to attend school and now they are living in an unheated room in Kabul. Temperatures in Kabul hover around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and Ahmedi said the cold and the damp are making Murtaza sick. The picture of Murtaza in his plastic Messi shirt playing football went viral on social media two years ago and he met his hero in December last year. "I wish Murtaza had never become so famous," she told The Associated Press. Criminals threatened to kidnap Murtaza after demanding money, assuming the boy's brush with fame somehow resulted in a windfall of money. Taliban insurgents stopped local school buses asking if anyone knew of Murtaza and the 7-year-old said he couldn't go to school, because he was scared that someone was always following him. Criminal gangs roam freely in most of Afghanistan, which has been at war for 17 years. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8a16ad8e7ecd587dafa0b3d11d5f9ae4
