Via PTI:

Taliban militants have cut off the ink-stained fingers of 11 Afghan men as a punishment for disobeying their diktat in the crucial presidential run-off poll that saw a higher than expected turnout of 52 per cent.

“AFG The insurgents who were defeated today cut off inked fingers of 11 voters in #Herat. The injured ppl transported to the hospital,” Afghanistan’s Deputy Interior Minister Ayoub Salangi tweeted.

The gruesome incident took place yesterday in Herat Province after the 11 men, mostly elders, who returned after casting their ballot in the run-off to elect a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has been in office since 2001.

The injured men were taken to a hospital, Salangi said.

The election will decide whether former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah or ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani leads the war-torn country. This election will be the first time that power in Afghanistan has been democratically transferred.

Officials said over seven million people voted, a higher than expected turnout of 52 per cent based on an estimated electorate of 13.5 million voters.