Update to this story.
Via Daily Mail:
An Afghan woman who was savagely beaten to death in the streets of Kabul was murdered because she spoke out against a controversial local cleric, witnesses have claimed.
Farkhunda, 27, was pushed from a roof, run over by a car and set on fire before her body was thrown in the Kabul River – in full view of several policeman – last Thursday.
It was initially claimed that the crowd had beaten the religious scholar to death because she had burned a copy of the Koran – an accusation even senior police officials admitted they believed to be false after detaining 18 people over the murder and suspending 13 police officers.
Now witnesses have come forward to claim that Farkhunda was in fact murdered because she dared to question the superstitious practices of a local mullah who was known for selling charms to women outside a shrine in central Kabul.
Countering the claims of Koran-burning, locals have come forward to say that Farkhunda was brutally murdered after accusing a mullah of encouraging desperately poor women to waste money of charms and amulets at the shrine.
An argument is said to have ensued, during which Farkhunda was accused of not being a proper a proper Muslim and then, most seriously, of burning a copy of the Koran.
‘Based on their lies, people decided Farkhunda was not a Muslim and beat her to death,’ Mohammed Nadir told AP.