Woman stoned to death for 'having sex with fiancé'

Towards the end of the brutal two-minute clip her cries can be clearly heard.

Local official Mohammad Zaman Azimi blamed Taliban militants for the horrifying footage, filmed in the village of Ghalmin on the outskirts of Firoz Koh, the Ghor provincial capital. 

Rokhshana's 23-year-old fiancé Mohammad Gul was lashed for his supposed crime, reports say.

Radio Free Afghanistan said the couple allegedly fled their families in a bid to find a place to be married.

Unmarried girls in Afghanistan are often restricted to their home and banned from having any contact with men outside their immediate families.

Those found guilty of stoning someone to death is likely to face a long prison term under Afghan law.

Capital punishment was widely practiced by the Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001.

In Taliban-controlled areas men and women found guilty of having relationships outside marriage are sentenced to death or publicly flogged.

In 2013, the nation's government was forced to distance itself from a leaked draft law to reintroduce public stoning as a punishment for adultery.

(The Daily Star)