File Photo. Noorullah Shirzada—AFP
Officials say militants accused fourth-year student of killing a senior intelligence officer.
Taliban militants publicly hanged a university student after accusing him of killing a senior intelligence officer, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
The militants took Faizul Rehman, a fourth-year student at Kabul Polytechnic University, from his car as he was traveling home to visit his family in the Chak district of Maidan Wardak province on Thursday.
“They hanged him on Friday in front of [the] public. Local elders tried to mediate to release him, but they failed,” said Abdul Rehman Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Maidan Wardak. “They accused him of killing Mullah Mirwais, the head of their intelligence in the area,” he said.
The Afghan interior ministry confirmed the execution and said they had launched an investigation “to arrest and punish the perpetrators of this criminal act.”
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said they were investigating the case.
Since their ouster in 2001, hardline Taliban insurgents have executed people they accuse of spying for foreign or Afghan forces and have staged public stoning or lashings of those found to have committed adultery or had sex outside marriage.