FIROZKOH (Pajhwok): “Taliban brutally stoned Rukhshana to death in front of my eyes; I will never forget her cries,” the bereaved mother says.
The 19-year-old woman was stoned to death and the unmarried man she eloped with was whipped in Awdak Ghaleem village on the outskirts of Firozkoh, the provincial capital of western Ghor province, on Oct. 25 by local Taliban militants.
A short video clip of the stoning scene went viral on social media, but militants have so far said nothing about the incident.
Her family, include parents, three daughters and a son fled the village and took refuge at the governor’s house. “Taliban stoned my daughter very cruelly without any crime. Her innocent cries always add to my pains,” Hanifa, the mother, said.
Shedding tears as she frequently named Rukhshana and asked the president to take the perpetrators to justice and punish them.
Despite being ill, she spoke to Pajhwok Afghan News and said: “I want to travel to Kabul and meet the president and express my pains and problems to him,” she said.
Abdul Karim, Rukhshana’s father, said they pulled out their daughter’s body from stones and buried her.
The video clip shows the woman is placed in a deep hole with only her head above the surface and militants throw stones at her.
“Taliban had warned us with death if we fled our area and came to the governor’s house. They told us that we had joined the government against them,” Karim added.
Ghor governor Sima Joyenda said she had kept the family at the governor’s house for their protection.
She said President Ashraf Ghan had ordered local organs to provide housing facility to the family in Firozkoh, the provincial capital.
Joyenda said the killers had been identified. But she acknowledged they could not be arrested without support from additional security organs.
She added that the stoning was ordered by Taliban commander Mulavi Yousuf and 20 people including Mullah Hashim and Saadyar were involved in throwing stones at Rukhshana.
President Ghani and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Abdullah Abdullah have promised to investigate the incident and bring the killers to justice.
Relatives of the victim said Rukhshana had studied school up to eight grade in Mohammad Rahim Shahid School in Udak village. She was engaged to a man with disabilities by his father five years ago and she was prevented from attending school when she was a little girl.
Rukhshana ran away and her husband divorced her. But her father last year married her to a 45-year-old man Abdul Razaq, a herdsman. But Rukhshana who was forcibly married to the old man was unsatisfied.
Local officials and the Ghror Ulema Council have condemned the stoning and called the action as “un-Islamic and inhumane.”
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