ARMED assailants attacked a man and gouged out his eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
Sayed Ghulam, 52, who is now recovering in hospital, said three armed men knocked on his door in the Sangin district of Helmand province late on Thursday.
After he opened the door, they punched him in the face, put the barrel of a Kalashnikov ri
fle in his mouth and gouged out his eyes with a knife in the presence of his wife and seven children.
"I was crying, along with my children and wife, who was screaming for help, but they didn't listen," Ghulam said.
Ghulam, a farmer, said he does not know why he was attacked. "I don't have any enemies. But they were not letting me talk. They put the AK-47 in my mouth and they were punching me."
Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand's governor, blamed Taleban fighters for the attack, saying that the militants often kill innocent Afghans.
Ahmadi said: "Ghulam didn't have any link with the government or Nato forces. He was a normal man, but these killers took out his eyes in front of his family. I don't know what kind of heart these killers have."
Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied that Taleban fighters were involved: "Whenever we carry out an attack we claim responsibility. We didn't gouge out this man's eyes."
Taleban militants sometimes carry out harsh punishments on people they accuse of being thieves or "spies" for the Afghan government. Such punishments include having hands cut off or being tarred and paraded publicly.