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1. Last week, we wrote the story of a man, a moment that I - and pretty much anyone who saw this video & couldn't stop replaying over and over and over -- haven't been able to stop thinking about. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/world/asia/afghanistan-bombing-video.html … Here is a thread, some thoughts on reporting this story:pic.twitter.com/9cHfgZg8ma
2. At the rate of loss - 74 a day last month, according to BBC - death is common. What's heartbreaking is this: how quickly and violently lives disappear (sometimes no trace left), and how quickly the trace left is cleaned in just hours -- as if no lives were lost on that spot.
3. These sentiments from @KarzaiH I've heard many times comes closest to describing this. "Death is human, death is natural," he says. "But they way we die, the way we are killed is indignity. We are blown to pieces on the streets, we are killed in our homes and in our beds."
4. Usually the sheer force of such bombings gives one no time. You are gone, like that. What fascinated people about the couple seconds of this CCTV video that spread far was the rare moment of someone spotting the bomber -- someone taking four steps to try to cling to life.
5. Finding who that man was could have been a difficult task. It's a process of elimination. Friends at security forces helped confirm it wasn't an NDS guard but a pedestrian. I put out a social media request asking if anyone knew him -- and I got lucky. Clues started coming in.
6. Read the story to find out who Akbar Fazelyar was -- how, despite his last four steps that the world will remember him by being rushed, he took life slow -- real slow.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/world/asia/afghanistan-bombing-video.html …
7. In the end, death was a matter of one cup of tea rather than two, a matter of delivering an invoice himself rather than sending his assistant. “It was as if God was inviting him to himself,” the assistant said. “God only invites the best to himself,” a friend added.pic.twitter.com/j12GaM6dLv
8. The more we dug in, the more it became clear how lives intersect at these brief moments before the violent explosion. Also caught in the explosion was the 89-year old poet Sulaiman Layeq, who had been delayed to his office that morning by a chat with a neighbor on his way out.pic.twitter.com/4UAn6GRxfd
9. When I watched more footage of the carnage scene, and the impressive work by the first responders -- one in white coat doing heroic work rushing around -- there was one man dazed & bloodied in his car still, trying to get out. When CCTV camera zoomed in, it was the old poet.
10. Just a month short of 90, Layeq had survived revolutions, purges, wars, regrets. Now here he was, all bloodied, stuck. He had left his apartment aft his usual breakfast of milk-tea & toast. These days, he was checking proofs of his life's poetry being published in one volume.
11. At the site of the bombing was a gutted pouch of a soldier’s meal — “Grilled Jalapeño Pepper Jack Flavored Beef Patty.” Almost certainly from the SUV Sgt. First Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz was traveling in along with a Romanian corporal, Ciprian-Stefan Polschi. (End)pic.twitter.com/28HxtZVbrd
Thank you for writing this. I couldn’t get him out of my mind, and I don’t know why I kept wishing he might have survived.
How did he know that he should run? How did he know that an explosion was imminent?
That's the question on everyone's mind. He must have seen like an explosive vest on the insurgent and identified him as a bomber. Or as one of my Afghan friend's pointed out, the bomber probably called out to Allah before detonating himself, alarming this man. We'll never know.
There are two explanations I have heard: one is that the bomber shouted “allah u Akbar.” Second: anyone would know swerving like that at a heavily-guarded checkpoint is danger — least of all the checkpoint guard opening fire — and it triggered suspicion & flight.
He was brother of my close friend. May his soul rest in peace.
May his memory be a blessing to all who love him.
Thank you for writing this and shedding light on these stories, these lives, we probably wouldn't know otherwise. I've always felt we honor our dead by sharing their stories.
One of my nightmare scenarios is when I find myself near a balloon. I'm frightened if it pops all the ugly memories of a bomb going off comes to life; dry mouth, shivering feet, the ugly smell, the pounding heart & the guilt of survival after seeing all in pieces just around you!
was he killed or is alive now?
To everyone's disappointment 
death ran faster than the guy trying to run away. There are so many deaths but some are heartrending, this story of @MujMash makes one cry
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