Hamed Sabouri. (Courtesy photo)
A 22- year-old aspiring gay medical student was tortured and killed by Taliban fighters two months ago after being stopped at a checkpoint in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul.
Pink News UK first reported the death of Hamed Sabouri, who was detained and then tortured with the video evidence of his killing sent to his family members in August.
According to a source who spoke via Telegram with the Washington Blade Oct. 14, Sabouri had been detained at one of the hundreds of Taliban checkpoints in Kabul used by the terrorist group to enforce adherence to Islamic Sharia law and religious rules instituted after it took control of the country in August 2021.
The source added that it was reasonable to speculate that there had been content on Sabouri’s cell phone that served as the justification for Taliban fighters to detain him, which led to his torture and death.
The Taliban has often used the contents of seized cell phones to track down other LGBTQ people they seek to persecute, imprison and torture.
Many in the Afghan LGBTQ community have taken measures to disguise their existence in country so as to not attract the Taliban’s attention. Several hundred LGBTQ Afghans have also fled to neighboring Pakistan to escape persecution.
