Voters mutilated for voting against Taliban wishes

KABUL – A man was beaten and his nose and ears were slashed off for voting in defiance of the Taliban in Afghanistan's recent elections.

The Taliban had vowed to disrupt the election and had repeatedly warned people against participating.

On polling day they carried out a series of attacks across the country killing 26 people and injuring about 80.

There were also reports that they cut off the ink-stained fingertips, which showed they had voted, of a number of people.

Lal Mohammed, a farmer, was determined to exercise his right to have a say in his country's future and vote in the election.

It was a decision for which he paid a horrific price. On his way to the polling station he was held by Taliban fighters, beaten brutally, and then had his nose and ears slashed off.

The father of eight children left his village, Galpagel, in Uruzgan province, on the morning of election day, 20 August, at about 10am to vote.

About half an hour into the 90-minute walk, Mr Mohammed was stopped by three men with AK-47 rifles and bandoliers of ammunition, who did not hide their faces and identified themselves as members of the Taliban.

The gunmen searched him and found the electoral registration papers he was carrying.

"They shouted at me and then they began beating me with their rifle butts, they said they were going to teach me a lesson. The most painful of the blows was when they kept hitting me on the face," he recounted, while shifting the bandage covering his face to show bruising and what looked like a fractured cheekbone.

"They were beating me so hard and kicking me that I fell to the ground. 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."

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

No cars were available in the remote area of rough roads and Mohammed, who was drifting in and out consciousness, was carried by a donkey for the best part of a day to a main road where, at last, a taxi driver was persuaded to take him to Kabul.

"The journey on the donkey was very hard, I did not think I would survive that, the road was bad and my face was really hurting," recalled Mr Mohammed among bouts of coughing. "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."

It took three days before Mohammed received treatment for his injuries.

- THE INDEPENDENT, NZHERALD STAFF