Sare Pul: Police in Afghanistan have arrested five people allegedly shown in a video depicting the public beating of a father and his daughter who were accused of theft by a fortune teller. The Afghan interior ministry said in a statement the arrests took place near the city of Sare Pul in northern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Footage posted online -- showing a man beating a young woman and her father with a long stick as a crowd watches -- has gone viral on Afghan social media. The interior ministry said the beating took place on August 5th after a home near the city of Sare Pul was burgled. The resident consulted the village fortune teller in a bid to identify the culprit.

"The fortune teller then pointed the finger at a local resident. The people then brutally beat him and his young daughter in public," the statement added.

The video prompted a wave of revulsion on Afghan social media.

"This is embarrassing for us, this is jungle law," Ramin Delawari wrote on his Facebook page.

"Police should apprehend and punish those responsible."

Public executions and flogging of men and woman accused of crimes were common under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

Although significant progress has been made on women's rights since a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, many fear those gains are under threat after the NATO mission ended last December and violence has risen across the country.

In March, a furious mob turned on a 27-year-old woman named Farkhunda, falsely accused of burning a copy of the Koran, beating her in broad daylight in central Kabul and setting her body ablaze.

The attack shocked Afghanistan and reverberated around the world.

In addition, superstition is widespread in remote areas, where illiteracy levels remain high.