KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Interior on Tuesday said 42 people, including police officials, had been arrested in connection with the broad daylight lynching of a 27-year-old woman in Kabul.
The woman, Farkhanda, was savagely murdered by a rampaging mob last Thursday after what residents said she criticised a controversial cleric at a well-known mosque in Kabul for selling charms and amulets.
Those detained in her murder case included 20 police officials and 22 civilian men, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.
The detainees were being questioned, said the statement, which added that all those involved in the incident would be booked as per directives of the Interior Minister.
It said the Ministry of Interior was committed to seriously investigating Farkhanda’s killing and bringing to justice all the perpetrators.
The mob pushed Farkhanda from a roof, run over by a car and set on fire before her body was thrown in the Kabul River in full view of several policemen.
It was initially claimed that the crowd had beaten the deeply religious woman, who had just finished a diploma in Islamic Studies, to death because she had burned a copy of the Quran.
But the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs said its investigation showed no incident of a Quran’s burning had taken place in the area.
Even senior police officials admitted they believed the allegation against Farkhanda that she had burned a copy of the book was false.
Witnesses have come forward to claim that Farkhanda was in fact murdered because she dared to question the superstitious practices of a local mullah outside a shrine in Kabul.
President Ghani, now in Washington on a landmark five-day visit, had condemned the lynching as “a heinous crime” and ordered an investigation.
The Presidential Palace-appointed delegation to investigate Farkhanda’s murder formally began its probe a day earlier.
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