Dad of Jungle lad who made Lily Allen cry revealed as former commander for brutal Islamist warlord
Singer controversially apologised to teenager this week but now it’s revealed that his British-based father was big fish in Butcher of Kabul’s private army
THE dad of a migrant boy who singer Lily Allen controversially apologised to snuck into Britain in the back of a lorry to claim asylum after leaving his post as an Islamist commander.
He then went back to the country he had fled from for two three-month holidays after being granted the right to stay here.
The reports that Hazrat Gul Sherin, whose son Shamsher appeared in a video with the tearful pop star earlier this week, came to the UK illegally in 2005 from war-torn Afghanistan.
His decision to leave the mountainous country wasn’t because of the brutal Taliban regime but due to the presence of Western-backed forces.
At the time Mr Sherin was a top supporter of a bloody Islamist warlord and an officer in his private army who was put under pressure by the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance.
After seven years in Britain, Mr Sherin was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK, and then promptly returned to Afghanistan to visit his family.
The 49-year-old was a commander in the Islamist group Hezb-e Islami, led by the Butcher of Kabul, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
In the early 1990s, the group of fundamentalist Sunni Muslims clashed violently with other Islamist factions in a struggle for control of the Afghani capital Kabul.
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Hezb-e Islami was blamed for much of the death and destruction in that period and were also accused of appalling human rights abuses – including the assassination of academics and throwing of acid in women’s faces.
The civil war led to Hekmatyar’s downfall and he quickly became one of the most hated men in the country.
In 1996, when Hekmatyar went into exile, Mr Sherin also began to lead a quieter life.
But his allegiance to the Butcher of Kabul was remembered years later when the Northern Alliance swept to power.
It is for this reason that he said he left his wife and four young children in Afghanistan.
He now lives in Birmingham and is hoping that 13-year-old Shamsher will be able to join him from Calais soon.
Lily Allen, 31, took a break from recording her new album to volunteer in a charity warehouse at the infamous Jungle camp in Calais, France, where 10,000 migrants live.
She told Shamsher: “We’ve bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country. I apologise on behalf of my country. I’m sorry for what we have put you through.”
Shamsher’s father revealed that to reach Britain, he hiked across eight countries before being stowed away by traffickers in a fruit lorry.
He spent seven years living on benefits in Birmingham before his claim for asylum was accepted in September 2012.
He then went back to Afghanistan, flying in via Pakistan, for the first of two three-month visits to the very country that had put him in fear of his life.
After 11 years in the UK, he can barely speak English. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Sherin said: “I was not escaping the Taliban. I had been a commander for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Hezb-e Islami for many years and was put in charge of the village of Shershia in Jalalabad.
“I had a profile then. Everyone was scared and could not say anything but when the Western-backed government took over from them, the villagers realised I had no power and turned on me and our house was shot at.
“We fled over the border to Nasar Bagh in Pakistan but somebody snitched on me and a bomb was planted at the local mosque intended to kill me.
“I was injured in the blast and have three bits of metal in my body still. We had to move again to Tira and it was then I knew I had to escape to build a better future for my family.
“My father had some money and sold land and I used that to make my way to Britain. I did not know anyone there but I heard they had the best human rights in Europe.
“It was very hard to leave. My wife Noorbabo had just had our fourth baby but I had no choice if I was to look after their future.”
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