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<\/div>\nPublic executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001. (File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ghazni, Afghanistan: <\/b><\/p>\n
Taliban authorities publicly executed two men convicted of murder in a football stadium in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.<\/p>\n
Both men were executed by multiple gunshots to the back in Ghazni city after Supreme Court official Atiqullah Darwish read aloud a death warrant signed by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.<\/p>\n
“These two people were convicted of the crime of murder… after two years of trial in the courts of the country, the order has been signed,” Darwish said.<\/p>\n
Thousands of men gathered in the stadium to witness the execution.<\/p>\n
Families of the convicted men’s victims were present and asked if they wanted to grant the condemned a last-minute reprieve but they declined in both cases.<\/p>\n
The Taliban administration in Kabul has not been officially recognised by any other government since it took power in 2021 and imposed an austere interpretation of Islam.<\/p>\n
Akhundzada ordered judges in 2022 to fully implement all aspects of Islamic law — including “eye for an eye” punishments known as “qisas”.<\/p>\n
Islamic law, or sharia, acts as a code of living for Muslims worldwide, offering guidance on issues such as modesty, finance and crime.<\/p>\n
However, interpretations vary according to local custom, culture and religious schools of thought.<\/p>\n
Taliban scholars in Afghanistan have employed one of the most extreme interpretations of the code, including capital and corporal punishments little used by most modern Muslim states.<\/p>\n
– Regular floggings –<\/p>\n
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent building a new judicial system under the last foreign-backed government, a combination of Islamic and secular law with qualified prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges.<\/p>\n
However, many Afghans complained of corruption, bribery and the slow delivery of justice.<\/p>\n
Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s executions are believed to be the third and fourth death penalties meted out since the Taliban authorities returned to power.<\/p>\n
The first two had also been convicted of murder.<\/p>\n
There have been regular public floggings for other crimes, however, including theft, adultery and alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n
The previous execution was carried out in June 2023, when a convicted murderer was shot dead in the grounds of a mosque in Laghman province in front of some 2,000 people.<\/p>\n
Many governments, international organisations and aid agencies cut off or severely scaled back their funding for Afghanistan in response — causing a serious knock to the already struggling economy.<\/p>\n
The Taliban government has also barred girls and women from high schools and universities, banned them from parks, funfairs and gyms, and ordered them to cover up in public.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n