KABUL: An Afghan judge sentenced 11 police on Tuesday to one year in jail for failing to prevent the mob killing of a woman in Kabul who was accused of burning a copy of the Holy Quran.

The incident happened when a frenzied crowd beat and kicked the woman, named Farkhunda, to death on March 19 and set her body on fire as several policemen looked on near a shrine in central Kabul.

The judge freed eight other officers accused of failure to carry out their duty for lack of evidence.

The beating death of the 27-year-old woman, sparked outrage and demonstrations in the Afghan capital even before it was revealed that she had not desecrated Islam’s holy book.

Earlier in the month, Afghan judge sentenced four men to death that includes the caretaker of a shrine who falsely accused the woman of desecrating the holy book.

Several protests against religious extremism and violence against women sprang up in Kabul after the lynching.

It is the first time since 2001 that a popular movement has been mobilised in support of a woman.

Women’s rights were enshrined in Afghanistan’s constitution after the Taliban were ousted by a US-backed military intervention, but the society largely remains deeply conservative.