A young Helmand couple, who were eloping against the wishes of the girl's family, were found beheaded in a cemetery on Tuesday according to local officials.
The incident took place in the Bolan area of Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province.
Provincial Governor spokesman Omar Zwak said that the boy was a resident of the Bolan area and the girl of Nawa district. Two days ago, the girl fled her home and went to be with her boyfriend at his home in Bolan.
Zwak said preliminary investigations had indicated that on Tuesday the couple was abducted in Bolan and then beheaded in a nearby cemetery called "Basharan" by unknown assailants. Authorities suspect the gruesome murder was related to the girl fleeing her family to elope with the boy, but no motives have yet been confirmed.
Nevertheless, Helmand Police spokesman Ahmad Fawad Askari suggested the family of the girl was behind the double beheading. His information contradicted that of Zwak's, saying the girl was in fact a resident of Bakwa in Farah province, not Nawa in Helmand.
Askari did support the account that the two had fled the girl's home to elope, but he went further to assert that the family of the girl traveled to the boy's Bolan home under the pretense of having them engaged and then proceeded to kill them and dump their bodies in the cemetery.
Although the details of the incident remain unconfirmed, officials said an investigation is under way and those responsible would be brought to justice. No suspects have yet been detained.
Representatives of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Helmand condemned the killing and said such incidents had been on the rise in recent years, though they did not provide any statistics to back up that claim.
They said the ultimate reasons behind these types of crimes were the lack of education, presence of insecurity and traditional values in Helmand.