Angry mob lynches Afghan couple for eloping

KABUL: An angry mob lynched a young Afghan couple who had eloped together after storming a police station where they were being held for "immoral acts", officials said on Sunday, the latest so-called honour killing in the country.

Fateha, an 18-year-old woman who had been forced to marry a man against her wishes, was arrested on Saturday along with her lover Hedayatullah, 19, in the Wama district of the remote eastern province of Nuristan. "The woman’s family believed she had damaged their honour. Together with armed villagers they attacked the police station, took the girl and boy outside and shot them in front of the public," provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayyom said.

Abdul Ghafoor Nuristani, a provincial official, accused the police of failing to protect the couple. But Qayyom said three policemen were wounded in the incident, into which the government had launched an investigation. So-called "honour killings" are not uncommon in conservative Afghanistan and relations between men and women outside marriage are strictly controlled.