Eloped couple found beheaded in Helmand

LASHKARGAH (PAN): A young couple, believed to be lovers, have been found beheaded after they eloped in southern Helmand province, an official said on Wednesday.

The woman, a resident of Nawa district, and the man, a resident of Bolan area of Lashkargah, the provincial capital, were found with their throats slit in Bashran area on the city’s outskirts late on Tuesday, the governor’s spokesman, Omar Zwak, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said police were investigating into the case and initial reports suggested the couple had been murdered by their relatives.

Police spokesman Ahmad Fawad Askari said the pair in their 20s had been killed by the girl’s family, who chased them into Lashkargah from Farah province, from where the girl had escaped with the man.

He said male members of the girl’s family visited the boy’s family in Lashkargah and pretended they wanted the couple to tie the knot.

They took the couple in a car to the Bashran area, killed them and threw their bodies near a graveyard, the police official said, vowing to arrest the killers over the next 48 hours.

A resident of Bolan area, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the slain boy as Hayatullah, who had already a wife.

A doctor at a hospital in Lashkargah said gunmen in five vehicles raided the house of the boy and dragged out him and the girl and then killed them after severely beating them.

mds/ma

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