Angry Kabul residents rally against Farkhanda murder

KABUL, asking the government to punish the perpetrators.

Farkhanda, 27, was beaten and burnt to death by a mob for allegedly burning the Quran at the Shah Do Shamshera shrine in Kabul last Thursday.

Preliminary investigations by the Ministries of Interior (MoI) and Hajj reveal the woman had not committed any sacrilegious act.

Enraged by the incident, hundreds of residents staged a rally in Kabul and asked the government to investigate the murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The protestors, most of them girls with their faces covered with Farkhanda’s photos, chanted: “The killers should be punished; we will seek revenge; her death is a shame for the government,”

A day earlier, many people including girls buried Farkhanda amid moving scenes. Top investigator Gen. Mohammad Zahir, who attended the burial, said he had failed to find evidence of the woman having desecrated the Quran.

He promised to punish those involved and said 13 people, including eight police personnel, had already been arrested. Video clips on social media show police did not act to save the woman from being killed by the mob.

mds/mud