AFGHANISTAN-UNREST-CHILDREN-PAEDOPHILIA-POLICE

This photograph taken on October 31, 2016 shows an Afghan boy, who was held as a child sex slave, sits at a restaurant in a unidentified location in Afghanistan. Quivering with quiet rage, Shirin holds a photo of his teenage brother-in-law, who now lives as the plaything of policemen, just one victim of a hidden epidemic of kidnappings of young boys for institutionalised sexual slavery in Afghanistan. Shirin is among 13 families AFP traced and interviewed across three Afghan provinces who said their children were taken for the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi", or paedophilic exploitation, in Western-backed security forces. Their testimonies shine a rare spotlight on the anguished, solitary struggles to free sons, nephews and cousins from a tradition of culturally-sanctioned enslavement and rape. / AFP / AREF KARIMI / To go with Afghanistan unrest children paedophilia police, FOCUS by Anuj CHOPRA (Photo credit should read AREF KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images)