Nose and ears the price for defying the Taleban to vote

Lal Mohammed was determined to exercise his right to have a say in his country's future and vote in the election. But he paid a horrific price.

On his way to the polling station he was held by Taleban fighters, beaten brutally, and had his nose and ears slashed off.

What happened to the 40-year-old farmer is the hidden side of the election where insurgents ordered a boycott on the polls. It helps explain why so many were too afraid to vote.

On his way to the polling station, Mohammed was stopped by three men with AK-47 rifles, who identified themselves as talibs.

The gunmen searched him and found the electoral registration papers he was carrying - then his fate was sealed.

"They shouted at me and then they began beating me with their rifle butts, they said they were going to teach me a lesson," he said.

"Then one man sat on top of my chest and got out a knife and I began to feel terrible pain when he slit my nose. I was passing out, but another man was still using knives and there was more pain, I could feel blood all over my face. I thought it was better to die."

Mohammed fell into unconsciousness after that. He woke up in agony after a man passing by found him, spreadeagled on the side of the road.

The farmer was carried by donkey for the best part of a day to a main road where a taxi driver was persuaded to take him to Kabul.

"I was very happy when I got to the hospital. But they said they had no beds and I was told to come back in a few days," he said.

Mohammed has now been promised surgery.

"The talibs had been warning people not to vote, saying it was a conspiracy against Islam by foreigners.

"But I had voted in the last election and I do not think I was doing anything wrong. I am not involved in the war and I do not have anything to do with foreigners. Look at my hands, I am only a farmer, I only work on the land."

- INDEPENDENT