Local officials in the southwestern province of Nimroze revealed that Taliban have killed before the Pubic eye a boy and girl who wanted to get a runaway marriage.

Ghulam Dastageer Azad, the governor of the Province claimed that gunmen belonging to the Taliban movement killed the boy and the girl before noon yesterday (April 13, 2009) in the district of Khashroad before the public eye. Mr. Azad said these two young people wanted to runaway and get married but the family of the girl handed them over to Taliban.

The governor condemned the murder calling it against the Sharia, Law and Human rights and assured of a fair investigation into the matter by the government.

A local official told media that the family of the murdered girl wanted her to get married to another boy but she was trying to escape a “Forced Marriage”.

The Taliban have not claimed the responsibility for the murder and said that they didn’t have the knowledge of these murders.

This is not the first time it has happened so where young people particularly girls face such brutal end. Just last winter, a young girl who was found pregnant of an unknown person went through operation by her brother and mother with the least medical instruments and knowledge in the central Bamiyan Province. The mother and brother of the victim had torn open her belly and had taken out the fetus.

Afghanistan has a strange traditional set up where women enjoy least freedom in decision making. Families keep them under strict observations and their marriage and all other affairs are decided by the male members of the family. Every year dozens of women fall victim to self immolation, suicides, murders and killings of other sorts. In most cases the reason remains to be the limited freedom they enjoy. In most cases they are simply sold to their husband to-be. Poor Afghan women are still treated merely as the property of their male relatives.