eid al adha
Afghan traders gather at a livestock market in Kabul ahead of Eid al-Adha AFP

Five men have been executed in Afghanistan for the gang-rape of four women, officials have confirmed.

Afghan officials said that the men were executed in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison east of Kabul. Last-minute appeals for clemency from rights groups were ignored by authorities.

The rapes took place in the Paghman district near the capital Kabul in August. A sixth man was hanged after being convicted of unrelated crimes.

The case caused outrage in the Central Asian country despite normally not attracting such attention. Violence against women is commonplace in Afghanistan.

"The court's verdict has been implemented and all the convicts have been executed - five from the Paghman case, plus Habib Istalifi, who was head of a notorious kidnapping gang," the attorney general's chief-of-staff Atta Mohammad Noori said.

Newly-elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is yet to comment on the executions.

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Afghanistan