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Afghanistan’s ruling government run by the Taliban has performed a double public execution of two convicted men at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan. The men were shot at in a stadium while thousands watched.
According to reports citing court statements, the Taliban’s Supreme Court had ruled that the two Afghani men were responsible for the stabbing deaths of two victims in separate attacks.
The two convicts were identified as Syed Jamal from central Wardak province and Gul Khan from Ghazni.
Families of the convicted men’s victims were present, including women and children, and were asked if they wanted to grant the condemned a last-minute reprieve, but they declined in both cases.
Relatives were also offered to carry out the execution themselves, in line with Taliban government implementation of Islamic law, but members of the security forces killed both men after they refused.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court statement also said that three lower courts and the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, had ordered the executions in retribution for their purported crimes.
Akhundzada ordered judges in 2022 to fully implement all aspects of Islamic law — including “eye for an eye” punishments known as “qisas“.
On Thursday, people crowded outside the stadium in the Ali Lala area of the city of Ghazni, clambering to get in, and religious scholars pleaded with relatives of the victims to forgive the convicts, but they refused.
Abu Abu Khalid Sarhadi, a spokesman for Ghazni police, said that relatives of the victims executed the two men. He did not say what type of guns they used.
The executions started shortly before 1 pm. There were 15 bullets fired, eight at one of the men and seven at the other. Ambulances then took their bodies away.
The killings were the third and fourth public executions since the Taliban seized power in 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
The United Nations has strongly criticised the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power, and called on the country’s rulers to halt such practices.
During their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban regularly carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.
(With agency inputs)
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Published: 22 Feb 2024, 09:00 PM IST
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