A COUPLE have been beheaded for daring to have a love affair outside marriage and bringing shame on their families.

The couple, from Afghanistan's conservative Helmand province, were reportedly kidnapped, beaten and beheaded before their bodies were buried in an unmarked grave.

Police said they believed the couple, who are in their 20s, were killed by family members who were ashamed they had been living together outside marriage.

It is understood a group of 10 men broke into the couple's home on Monday in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and kidnapped them both.

Police official Mohammad Ismail Hotak said the couple's beheaded bodies were found the next day.

An older brother of the male victim told police the woman had run away with his sibling and had been living in their family home, the Daily Mail reported.

"Local residents reported that there were two bodies in the graveyard. We went there and found them. Both were beheaded," he said.

"From our investigations, we have found that the two had a love affair. We believe the family and relatives of the girl are behind the killing."

Police also said the man had recently said he loved the woman and wanted to marry her.

Couples who live together outside of marriage are frowned upon and are considered shameful in the deeply conservative country still reeling from years of hard line Taliban rule.

Violence against women is also not uncommon in the country with 4000 cases reported from March to October in 2011 alone, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

Crimes against women for supposed adultery charges are not uncommon either.

In July, an Afghan women named as Najiba was shot on charges of adultery, reportedly by a Taliban insurgent.

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