A woman accused of burning pages of Koran in Afghanistan was lynched by angry mob on Thursday; beating her with sticks, running her over with a car and dragging her body into a river, before burning her to death.
A report of the disturbing incident was uploaded on social media and has sent a wave of shock all over the entire conservative Islamic country.
The video showed a host of angry men repeatedly kicking, punching and stoning the poor victim with bricks and stones, supposedly after she burned pages from the Islamic Holy Book. The horrifying incident reportedly took place in the heart of the capital Kabul near the Shah-e Doh Shamshira mosque.
The victim, Farkhunda, 27 (Photo Credit: The Daily Mail)
The woman was identified only as Farkhunda, a 28-year-old former mathematics student at Kabul’s Education University who was preparing to enroll at the university’s Islamic Studies course.
The devastated parents of the victim said their daughter was suffering from mental illness for the last 16 years and did not mean to set the pages of Koran ablaze.
Earlier reports said a group of women accused the victim of burning pages from the Holy Book and yelled at her which drew attention from men nearby.
The river where the victim’s body was dumped and burned (Photo credit: Dawn)
She was then mobbed by irate men who went kicking and punching her until she fell to the ground, bloodied. Someone from the crowd then poured fuel on the woman but the lynching still continued.
Her limp body was dragged to a nearby river where people set it on fire. It was not immediately known whether the woman was already dead when fire engulfed her body.
The police came to disperse the crowd but it appears it was already too late to save the woman.
At least eleven men were rounded up by the police and detained in connection with the gruesome execution.
Completely innocent
An official from the Ministry of Interior said they have not found any evidence linking the victim to the crime she was accused of.
“We have reviewed all the evidence and have been unable to find any single iota of evidence to support claims that she had burned a Koran,” said ministry criminal investigation directorate chief General Mohamad Zahir. “She is completely innocent.”
The official’s statement came as the victim’s body was being prepared to be laid at a funeral on Sunday.
The investigation made by Ministry of Hajji and Religious Affairs also found out that the charred remains of the paper Farkhunda was accused of burning turned out to be from a Persian-language prayer book, and not from the Koran as previously claimed.
The result of the probe has caused massive outpouring of grief and support for the victim’s family especially from among Afghan women.
The mullah of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, Mohammad Ayaz Niazi, also became the subject of the supporter’s hatred after he warned the police to release those who were accused in connection with the lynching, saying the arrest could start an ‘uprising’.
He was later turned away by hostile supporters after he attempted to attend Farkhunda’s funeral.
A number of police officers were also being investigated for not doing enough in preventing the deadly attack on the victim.
All-woman coffin bearers
In what women activists described as “history-making” and “revolutionary”, the coffin of the deceased was carried by all-female pallbearers, instead of the traditional all-men during the funeral on Sunday.
Traditional Afghan funeral requires only men to carry then coffin. In some cases, women are not even allowed to join funerals.
Afghan women carrying Farkhunda’s casket (Photo Credit: Times of Israel)
However, Farkhunda’s father allowed the women to carry his daughter’s casket on Sunday
Mourners escorting the casket, mostly women and relatives of the victims, were demanding change in the ultra-conservative and often misogynist Afghan society and want the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“We are a poor family, we do not have any connections. All I ask is that the perpetrators be brought to justice for their brutality, nothing else,” said brother Najibullah.
In the meantime, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has reportedly ordered a two-fold investigation into the incident – one for the deadly beating, and one to include religious scholars.
Watch the video of the lynching below; but due to the very DISTURBING scenes, viewer’s discretion is STRONGLY advised:
