Taliban hanging of student draws ire across Afghanistan

KABUL -- Afghan members of parliament, officials and civil society members have denounced the Taliban's lynching of a college student in Maidan Wardak Province last week.

The Taliban publicly hanged Faizul Rehman, claiming that he had killed a Taliban intelligence official, Afghan officials said, according to a December 3 report from AFP.

The militants abducted Rehman, a fourth-year student at Kabul Polytechnic Universit, from his car in Maidan Wardak Province on December 2.

He had been going home to visit his family.

"They hanged him publicly," Abdul Rehman Mangal, a spokesman for the Maidan Wardak governor, told AFP. "Local elders tried to mediate to release him, but they failed."

"He wanted to spend his holiday at home but was kidnapped by the Taliban, who then hanged him," Mangal told Salaam Times.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) confirmed the slaying to Salaam Times and said it had launched an investigation "to arrest and punish the perpetrators of this criminal act".

The authorities will find the culprits soon, MoI spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Salaam Times, adding that the Taliban are not Afghans or real Muslims.

True face of the Taliban

The Taliban, who profess peace, showed their true face by killing Rehman, Abdul Hamid Bahji Usmani, a resident of Maidan Wardak and a member of the Afghan Academy of Sciences, told Salaam Times.

"He was a local person, a student, and innocent [of any offences]," Usmani said. "But the Taliban killed him and showed how much they oppose Afghan culture."

"They killed part of our future," Hasibullah Kalimzai, a member of parliament (MP) representing Maidan Wardak Province told Salaam Times. "The enemies of the country and of peace don't want to have such students and talent."

"The Taliban have executed people whom they accuse of spying," he said. "They have publicly stoned or flogged people they say committed adultery or had sex before marrying."

"This is not justice," Kalimzai said.

Rehman's lynching was an anti-Islamic and anti-Afghan act, Ramazan Bashardost, an MP representing Kabul, told Salaam Times, noting how Afghans took to social media to denounce it.

"We're all opposed to such brutalities," Juma Gul, a Maidan Wardak Province, tribal elder, told Salaam Times.

The Taliban are spreading fear that they will kill anyone, Rahmatullah Wardak, a college student in Kabul, told Salaam Times.