A 15-year-old Afghan girl who was severely tortured for months by her in-laws to force her into prostitution will be sent to India for medical treatment, an Afghan official has said.
Sahar Gul's mother-in-law and sister-in-law have been arrested and her husband is being sought, said interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi on Monday.
The case has shocked Afghans, though rights activists say serious abuses against women and girls in the conservative society are common. President Hamid Karzai has said that whoever used violence against Gul will be punished.
According to officials in north-eastern Baghlan province, Gul's in-laws kept her in a basement for six months, ripped her fingernails out, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers. Police freed her last week after her uncle tipped them off.
The public health and women's affairs ministers visited Gul, who is in a Kabul hospital.
"It is a violent act that is unacceptable in the 21st century," Sediqi told reporters. "We are thankful [to] Sahar Gul's uncle." He added that "if the police had not arrived in time she may have died". » | AP in Kabul | Monday, January 02, 2012
