Young Afghan Couple Try To Elope, Taliban Catch Them, Try Them, Kill Them With Firing Squad

So much for "love is blind" in Afghanistan...especially when the Taliban are around. A young Afghan man and woman, undaunted by not receiving their families' blessings for their marriage, decided to elope but unfortunately for them, the Taliban caught wind of this travesty and the couple was caught, tried by islamic clerics and then taken out and shot to death by a Taliban firing squad. The Taliban apparently accused the young couple of immoral acts - I guess that means is that if the 21 year old young man had taken a bride of 9 years old he would have been alive and well today. Here's some of the details from Times Online:

Taleban militants murdered a young couple trying to elope in southwestern Afghanistan after accusing them of immoral acts, local Afghan officials reported today.
The incident occurred in Nimroz Province, a bleak desert region on the Iranian border. The governor of the province, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, said that the couple, an unnamed girl of 19 and a man of 21, were condemned by a council of clerics and shot by firing squad. He called the killing an "insult to Islam".
"An unmarried young boy and an unmarried girl who loved each other and wanted to get married had eloped because their families would not approve the marriage," he said.

I'm guessing the Taliban who stood on that firing squad line, drawing their sights down on this young man and young woman wouldn't be classified as the "moderate" Taliban that President Obama wishes to sit down with and talk peace, huh?

Taleban 'shoot eloping couple dead' outside mosque in Afghanistan

Sadiq Chakhansori, the chief of Nimroz’s provincial council, said that the pair attempted to flee to Iran, where several million Afghan refugees take up low-paid jobs.
However, their families were reported to have dispatched gunmen to pursue them, said Mr Chakhansori, and they were caught. Reports differ over whether the families turned them over to local Taleban voluntarily or the Taleban took them by force.
"Three Taleban mullahs brought them to the local mosque and they passed a fatwa that they must be killed. They were shot and killed in front of the mosque in public," the governor said.
The couple were shot in the remote district of Khash Rod yesterday, said the provincial council chief. The Nimroz police chief, Jabar Pardeli, said that the Government had no access to the area.
Elopements are regarded as deeply damaging to family honour across Afghan society and murders of women by male relatives are frequently reported. In this instance it is not clear whether the families were complicit in the murders.
Even in government-held areas killings in which there is a clear honour motive are rarely investigated.