ISLAMABAD.- The Taliban on Monday held a public execution of a man convicted of murder in northern Afghanistan, as thousands watched in a sports stadium. It is the third death sentence applied in this way in the last five days.
The execution took place amid heavy snowfall in the city of Shibirghan, the capital of the northern province of Jawzjan, where The brother of the murdered man shot the inmate five times with a rifle, according to a witness. Security around the stadium was tight, said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
It was also the fifth public execution since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops finalized their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.
Despite their initial promises of a more moderate rule, the Taliban began imposing harsh public punishments—executions, floggings, and stonings—soon after coming to power.. The punishments are similar to those imposed during his previous tenure in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
Taliban government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The statement indicated that Monday’s sentence had been carried out after the approval of three of the country’s main courts and the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada. The executed man, identified as Nazar Mohammad, from the Bilcheragh district of Faryab province, had murdered Khal Mohammad, according to the text. The crime occurred in Jawzjan.
On Thursday, in the southeastern province of Ghazni, the Taliban executed two men convicted of stabbing their victims to death. Relatives of the victims fired weapons at the two men, also in a sports stadium before thousands of people.
Separate statements from the Taliban supreme court indicated that a man and woman convicted of adultery had received 35 lashes each in the northern province of Balkh over the weekend. Two other people were lashed in the eastern province of Laghman over the weekend, punished with 30 lashes each for alleged immoral acts.
The United Nations has harshly criticized the Taliban for organizing public executions, stonings and floggings since it came to power, and has called on the country’s rulers to stop such practices.
