By Zabihullah Ihsas
Unknown men raped and strangled to death and hanged a 13-year-old boy from a tree in the capital of northern Sar-i-Pul province, officials and family said on Tuesday.
Sar-i-Pul police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Rauf Taj said the boy was found dead late on Monday in the first police district of the provincial capital. He identified the victim as Mohammad Sharif, son of Faiz Mohammad.
The boy was briefly kidnapped and killed after being sexually assaulted. Health officials confirmed the teenager had been raped and strangled to death with a rope.
Public Health Director Anwarul Haq Jalil said the post-mortem examination confirmed that the boy was strangulated after being raped.
The victim’s father, Faiz Mohammad, told Pajhwok Afghan News his son left home a day earlier for the city bazaar to have a haircut ahead of Eid.
An hour later villagers informed him that his son had been hanged to death from a tree in the Asiaabad area. He said he had no personal dispute with anyone, asking police to properly investigate the incident and bring the killers to justice.
The police chief said they had launched investigation, but no one had so far been arrested.
Afghanistan Human Rights Commission chief for the northern zone, Syed Mohammad Sami, confirming the incident, called it inhuman. He asked security organs to investigate the case thoroughly and arrest those involved.