A teenage Afghan couple have been jailed and could be hanged or stoned to death for the 'crime' of falling in love and trying to get married.
The pair was driving to their wedding ceremony last month when a group of 300 men dragged them from their car, accused them of adultery and then started a riot.
In the resulting violence in the village of Jabrail, near Herat, one man was killed, and a police station was torched.
The couple, Halima Mohammedi and Rafi Mohammed, both 17, were eventually taken to a local police station where they were detained and charged, the Daily Mail reports.
Since then, there have been calls from locals and relatives for the lovers to be killed, as in their eyes 'they have disregarded strict rules' whereby marriages are arranged by families.
The couple began their romance at the Herat ice cream factory where they worked when Mohammedi dropped a piece of paper with her phone number on it for Mohammed.
They began speaking on the phone nightly and fell in love. Their decision to try and marry created a reaction that has left them both baffled.
The lovers, however, do have the backing of the provincial council that has said they have not committed any crime and should be given government protection.
