KABUL: Police in Afghanistan have arrested five people over the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for allegedly having an affair, an official said yesterday.
The girl, who has been named only as Sabera, was whipped 100 times in front of village elders and family members in Jaghuri district of Ghazni province on September 9 and is said to be in poor health.
“Police have arrested five people in connection with the case. We are investigating and we will soon be able to find who is the main person behind it,” interior ministry deputy spokesman Najeeb Danish said.
The flogging was reportedly ordered by a cleric. The girl’s alleged boyfriend was fined $1,600.
Public executions and flogging of alleged adulterers were common under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
Earthquake shakes northern Afghanistan
Kunduz: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 struck in the northern Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The quake hit at a depth of 33 kilometres some 48 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Kunduz, capital of Kunduz province, in the early afternoon, according to a preliminary report by the US Geological Survey.
Local officials in four provinces in the region said they had received no reports of damage or casualties.
Northern Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. Two quakes in June triggered landslides that killed at least 75 villagers.
AFP
