Seeing the seizure of Khojaly over the night from 25 to 26 February 1992, at about 23.00 p.m., with my wife Saadat, my uncle Zakariyya Guliyev, his wife Shura, their sons Akbar, Taleh, their grandchildren Sevinj and Samir we began to flee to Askeran. When we reached the space between Shelli and Dahra the Armenians surrounded us and opened the fire. We tried to hide fleeing away in different directions. Then we lost each other. When I reached Shelli I could find my wife among those who had escaped and returned to the place where she had hidden. There were Salim, Durdana, Saida, Elshad and about 13-14 inhabitants of Khojaly, whose names I can’t remember now. When all our bullets were over, the Armenians captured us. My wife died as a result of the bullet wound. On 26 February 1992 they brought us to Askeran. On our way they were pushing us into the cold water of the Gargar river. They placed us in the Askeran Police Department with 13-14 people at about 10.00 a.m. There they separated women from men and began to beat. I remember Elkhan, Natiq, Salim, Vasif (now dead), Ilgar, Saadat (now dead), Intizam and Mehman, who were kept in my cell. About 15-20 hostages were kept in each cell.
That evening Karo, who was the head of the Fire Prevention Division at that the Police Department and led other bearded Armenians, ordered to threw Elkhan, Salim, Huseyn, Natiq and me to the cell and cruelly beat us striking with barrels of machine guns, legs of chairs and batons. Cries were heard from the adjacent cells as well. Thus we realized that the Armenians were beating, raping and abusing women kept there. On 28 February 1992, at about 16.00-17.00 p.m., they took me and Elkhan to the cell that was designed for Karo’s tortures and pulled my nail out of the thumb and then broke my fingers. During the torture I was loosing consciousness for several times. On 1 March Karo and some other bearded Armenians entered the cell and beat everybody. Following Karo’s instructions, one Armenian thrust his knife into Elkhan’s chest but not very deep, so Elkhan did not die. Two hours later Karo took Elkhan, Natiq and 2 persons (I can’t remember their names) somewhere, and I don’t know what happened to them afterwards. Then I learnt that Karo took Salim, Huseyn, Araz, Vasif from the cell and shot. That day at about 20.00 – 21.00 p.m., when he took us to beat again, he shot a person whose name was Faiq. On 22 March 1992, they brought me back to the Azerbaijani side and exchanged for 3 Armenians.