The Armenians seized Khojaly over the night from 25 to 26 February 1992. They burnt houses, killed innocent people, plundered our property. The people were forced to leave their houses and flee away. At that time my husband Mustafayev Vidadi Shafa participated in the battle. He served in the voluntary battalion. We could not leave our house. My daughters Safayat, Ayshan, my son Taleh, my sister-in-law Rahila and the family of Alkhan who worked at the Khojaly Polis Department hid in the bathroom of our house. It was snowing and very frosty. Alkhan came to our house at about 4.00-5.00 a.m. He told that the Armenians had al ready occupied Khojaly. The Armenians got into our house and captured us on 26 February at about 11.00 a.m. They were beating us cruelly. My daughter Safayat was crying: “Don’t beat my mother”. An Armenian caught and threw her from the second floor. She injured her knee joint. Then the Armenians started to beat Alkhan. He told us that my husband Vidadi had been wounded during the battle and had given him cartridges to shoot us to avoid captivity. Alkhan asked to forgive him for being unable to do that and the Armenians killed him by beating before our eyes. One Armenian took his wife. His two sons were brought with us to the Askeran Polis Department. I recognized Ashot from Shushukand among the Armenians who captured us. His father’s name was Ata. They kept us in Askeran for a week. There was an Azerbaijani with a nickname Dumbay who lives at present at the hostel of college 9 in Ganja. They took him away for beating. When he returned he told that my husband was held in the cellar and the Armenians were planning to kill us torturing before his eyes. Then the Armenians asked me for several times who was that man. I didn’t reply anything and they began to torture me. They heated reinforcing steel and cauterized it to my body. They cut my left arm and upper jaw with a knife. These scars remain on my body now. Later I learnt that my husband Vidadi along with 4 other Azerbaijanis had been taken to the grave-yard by an Armenian whose 20-years-old brother had been killed in the battle, and there he had beheaded them on his grave.
My sister-in law Rahila Shafa Mustafayeva was also held in captivity. She was 25 years old. We were raped by the Armenians for several times. They were beating us with barrels of machine guns and bludgeons and didn’t give us any food. A man whose name was Karo was among the Armenians who tortured us. He was even more cruel than the others. He was tying captives’ arms and legs and was beating and breaking them with baton. He was cauterizing burning cigarettes to their eyes and different parts of their bodies and raping women. He was always wearing military uniform. The Armenians took all our jewelry, money and documents. My sister-in-law Rahila fell ill seriously. As a result of tortures, a blood flow started. It was hard to keep her alive till the end of captivity. There we were kept in the cold and without food. All my children fell ill. 7 days later we were exchanged for the Armenian captives. Although we underwent medical treatment after captivity, it was impossible to save the lives of my sister-in-law Rahila and my daughter Shafayat. My daughter died at the age of 22, my daughter Ayshan and son Taleh are always ailing and are under the doctor’s control. I myself was operated. Because of received craniocerebral injury, I often suffer from headaches.