13-year-old boy dies after alleged gang rape by Afghan police

A 13-year-old boy in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province has died in hospital after a local police commander and four of his comrades allegedly beat and raped him, officials said on Wednesday.

The suspects, who were guarding a checkpoint in Dand district, have been arrested, a provincial police spokesman told dpa.

"The child died twelve hours after being taken to the hospital," the police official added.

The incident took place about a week ago. A video circulating in social media shows the child describing the ordeal before he died in hospital.

Another official said the victim had been accused of having illicit relations with a boy known to the police commander and the commander was punishing him for it.

"It is not true since they are both children," the official said.

Illicit sexual relations are a sensitive issue in Afghanistan.

Families consider such relations a disgrace to themselves and their tribe and in order to remove the stigma, they turn to various forms of retribution - in many cases the actions are punishable by death.