Afghan authorities arrest militants for acid attacks

Kandahar: Ten Taliban militants who threw attacked schoolgirls with acid in southern Afghanistan have been arrested, Afghan authorities said on Tuesday.

The militants threw acid in the faces of eight schoolgirls and four female teachers, scarring them permanently.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered the arrest of the culprits and said they would be executed in public after the attack.

The deputy interior minister in charge of the case, General Mohammad Daud Daud said authorities had arrested 10 men in recent days in connection to the attack.

"The attack was the work of the Taliban and we have not finalised our investigation," Daud told reporters in Kandahar.

Girls were banned from schools under the Taliban rule, the hardline Islamist regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.