Hundreds of protesters on Tuesday urged the Afghan government to bring to justice the killers of a woman lynched by a mob for allegedly burning the Koran.
Farkhunda, aged 27, was beaten with sticks and stones, thrown from a roof and run over by a car outside a mosque in Kabul on Thursday last week. The mob then set her body ablaze and dumped it in the Kabul River while several police officers looked on.
Demonstrators gathered in the rain outside Afghanistan’s Supreme Court in Kabul, demanding justice and shouting: “Down with ignorance. We want justice for Farkhunda.”
Photo: Reuters
“She was our sister,” said Ahmad Zia, one of the protesters. “The people who killed her had no respect for women, for law or for Shariah. Her brutal killing should bring a big change.”
Women’s rights activist Soraya Parlika said: “This is the first time in Afghan history that we have witnessed such brutality. This is such an inhumane and un-Islamic act against a woman.”
Some carried banners calling for the resignation of the city’s police chief.
In downtown Kabul, residents of the Afghan capital planted a tree near the site of Farkhunda’s killing to mark the brutal assault.
“I feel as if they have killed and burned my daughter,” one tearful woman said at the tree-planting.
“All those people are cowards, they should have protected her,” said the woman, who declined to be identified. “They could have protected her if they wanted to.”
The demonstration followed another protest on Monday by scores of people demanding the killers be brought to justice.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the killing as “heinous” and ordered an investigation into her death.
Afghan Minister of the Interior Noor ul-Haq Ulumi on Monday told parliament that Farkhunda had not in fact burned a Koran.
“The accusation against her is completely invalid. Farkhunda was a religious girl, she was not involved [in burning the Koran], she was innocent,” Ulumi said. “It is very painful that we were not able to protect a pious young person. We hope this will not be repeated again.”
The ministry on Tuesday said its investigation had led to the arrest of 28 people as well as the detention and interrogation of 20 police officers following reports they did nothing to prevent the lynching.
Kabul police chief spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai was sacked after making comments on social media condemning the burning of the Koran, rather than the lynching.
Farkhunda’s body was carried on Sunday to a graveyard by women, a break with the tradition of men carrying the coffin.
Allegations of Koran burnings have sparked violent incidents before in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative religious nation.
In 2012 the revelation that copies of the Koran had been burned at the US-run Bagram prison sparked five days of violent anti-US riots and attacks across the nation, in which 30 people were killed.
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