29 Jun 2016

President targets security forces sex abuses

10:31 am on 29 June 2016

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has ordered an investigation into allegations of institutionalised sexual abuse of boys in the police force.

Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani

Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani Photo: AFP

His promise to prosecute abusers came after journalists reported on the widespread use of boys as sex slaves by police in the southern province of Uruzgan.

He said there was no place in the establishment for the abuse of young boys and everything would be done to prosecute perpetrators.

There was widespread evidence in parts of the country of a custom known as bacha bazi, in which young boys would be recruited as sexual companions for members of the security forces.

AFP reported recently the Taliban had been infiltrating the police, enlisting abused boys and getting them to launch insider attacks that have killed hundreds of police.

- BBC

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