KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A mullah's sombre voice echoed through a sunlit room in Kandahar Sunday as Canadians and Afghans closed their eyes together in prayer.
One week after a deadly bombing in the Arghandab claimed more than 100 Afghan lives, the Canadian military wanted to pay tribute to their families and invited them to a condolence ceremony and to lunch outside the PRT.
"Just like back home in Canada, when something of this magnitude happens, of such tragedy, it's normal that when we have a connection with people we want to share their tragedy,'' said Maj. James Allen, the officer commanding the Civil Military Co-operation Team in Kandahar.
"We want to show them that we feel their pain and we understand.''
The invitees were delivered door-to-door, after staff at the PRT told soldiers about all the families they knew who had been affected by the explosion.
The region has seen its share of chaos over the last six months.
After the revered leader of the Arghandab, Mullah Naqib, died of a heart attack, his legacy was threatened by a re-emergence of the Taliban.
Canadian and Afghan forces fought back and declared a campaign to clear the region of insurgents won.
But nothing had prepared the residents for the horrors of the blast and the uncertainties that follow.
Gul Mohammad, 70, was at home with his wife when they heard of the explosion.
They raced to the scene and found their son Hayat, 20, dead.
Hayat supported his parents and four siblings by his work as a labourer.
"I am worried,'' Mohammad said. "Now I am thinking I will have to find a job, maybe as a security guard to support my family.''
Thirty-six men and boys attended the ceremony after listening to the Qur'an being recited in a nearby mosque, a tradition that is said to hasten the forgiveness of the dead by Allah.
It is only Allah who can make sense of the tragedy for Mohammad.
"I wish peace would come in our country,'' he said, his voice breaking.
"I just will pray.''
The blast happened at a dog-fighting competition, one of the only forms of recreation in southern Afghanistan.
Jan Mohammad, 45, said he never would have let his 15-year-old son Raz go had he known where he was off to.
"Now my family members are afraid to go these crowded areas,'' he said.
"I was not thinking there would be a blast in these types of crowded areas.''
Though the competition is a weekly affair, this Sunday's match was cancelled.
The attack was believed to be targeted at an influential local police commander who held great sway against the Taliban.
Observers have commented that the incident, in such a crowded gathering of civilians, also heralds a new kind of insurgency in Kandahar, one that bears little regard for civilian life.
Others have suggested it was a ploy to undermine support for local leaders and security officials, especially the police, who are often targets themselves.
On Sunday, four police officers were injured and two wounded by a land mine that exploded in the district of Maywand near a convoy carrying the Governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid.
The governor and his staff were unhurt.
One day after the attack in the Arghandab, a suicide attack on a Canadian convoy killed 38 civilians and wounded four Canadian soldiers on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Khalid suggested at the time the carnage could have been avoided if Canadians had heeded advice to stay away from Spin Boldak because a bomber was known to be present.
The suggestion the attacks could weaken Afghan support for both their own government and coalition forces was dismissed by Allen.
"Although we are helping with the security situation with the Afghan national forces and the police force, we can't be there 24 and 7 every day of the week,'' he said.
"I think it is having a very negative effect with regards to how the population would view the insurgency and how they view us. They know we're there to help.''
Ten men have been arrested in connection with the blasts and they were paraded in front of local media earlier this week.
The investigation into all three bombings is ongoing.
