KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Thousands of people marched through the Afghan capital on Wednesday, carrying the coffins of seven ethnic Hazaras who had been kidnapped and beheaded and calling for a new government that can ensure security in the country.
Protesters, holding banners with photos of the victims – who include a nine-year-old girl – rallied outside the Presidential Palace.
Holding up the green-draped coffins, they chanted “Death to the Taliban” and called on President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah to resign.
The four men, two women and child were found partially beheaded on Saturday in the southeastern province of Zabul, officials have said.
They had been kidnapped in neighboring Ghazni province up to six months earlier. Afghanistan’s spy agency dismissed Taliban claims that affiliates of the Islamic State group were behind the killings. In the past five days, rival Taliban groups have been fighting each other in the region where the bodies were found.