Afghan President Karzai condemns the hanging of an 8-year-old boy

2011-07-25 07:04:21 GMT+7 (ICT)

KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on late Sunday strongly condemned the hanging of an 8-year-old boy in southern Afghanistan on Friday, his office said.

The eight-year-old boy, whose name was not released, was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in the Greshk district of Helmand province on Tuesday. He was later hung after his father, a local police commander, did not surrender as the Taliban had demanded.

According to the office of Karzai, the Taliban militants had demanded the boy's father to meet at a certain place where his son would be released while the father would surrender himself to the Taliban. "After he rejected their request, terrorists hanged his son," a spokesperson for Karzai said.

"President Hamid Karzai called it a cruel and cowardly act and said such crimes are unacceptable in any religion and culture," the spokesperson said, adding that Karzai would trust local authorities in Helmand to bring those responsible for the 'heinous, non-Islamic and seriously inhumane act' to justice.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, also condemned the murder in postings on his Twitter account. "[The] Taliban showed once again their brutality by killing innocent children. He was too young to die!"

While child executions by the Taliban are not common, children often fall victim to Taliban militants when they carry out attacks. But children have also been used by the Taliban as suicide bombers.

On May 1, four civilians were killed and 12 others were injured when a 12-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban however have denied that they use children to carry out their attacks.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-07-25

Utterly sick.