A 13-year-old boy in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province has died in a hospital after a local police commander and four of his comrades allegedly beat and raped him, officials said on September 23.
The suspects, who were guarding a checkpoint in the Dand district, have been arrested, a provincial police spokesman told dpa.
"The child died 12 hours after being taken to the hospital," the police official added.
The incident took place about a week ago. A video circulating on social media shows the boy describing the ordeal before he died.
Another official said the victim had been accused of having illicit relations with a boy known to the police commander and that the commander was punishing him for it.
"It is not true since they are both children," the official said.
Illicit sexual relations are a sensitive issue in Afghanistan. Families consider such relations a disgrace to themselves and their tribe and in order to remove the stigma, they turn to various forms of retribution. In many cases, the actions are punishable by death.