thereafter released permanently. Yusuf Hamid came to live with his family only for a few weeks. Bahadur described how the family came to realize Yusuf was increasingly unwell. Yusuf remained sick for days, with a negligible appetite, unable to eat. He was quiet and hardly spoke. Bahadur now found his brother silent and reserved, the opposite of his happy and friendly boyhood self. As the pain in Yusuf’s leg worsened, he was admitted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. There he received medicine to relieve the pain, but it persisted, and he was taken to another medical facility in the city, Imran Hospital, for further testing. It was then that the doctors decided to amputate his left leg. The cancer, however, had spread to his shoulders, and more surgery was required. The doctors said that in a semi-conscious state while recovering from anesthesia after what would be his last surgery, as it could not save him, Yusuf recited the Quran. That same day, he died. Khan Bahadur described his mother’s condition after Yusuf’s death: “He was very close to his mother, and even today she cries all the time. She does not talk about anything; she only remembers Yusuf and cries afterwards. She is now in the habit of going and sitting at every place in the village where Yusuf used to play with his friends. She sits there for hours and cries.” Bahadur burned all the pictures of Yusuf and kept only those from his childhood. 45