Taliban authorities on Tuesday carried out the second public execution since taking power in August 2021. It was a man convicted of murder who was shot dead in a mosque in the east of the country.
“He was publicly executed in the city of Sultan Ghazi Baba in the central province of Laghman, so that he might suffer and (his death) be a lesson to others,” provincial officials wrote in a press release.
A first public execution took place in Farah province (west) in December.
The authorities also carried out several public floggings for other offenses such as theft, adultery or alcohol consumption.
Public executions were frequent under the first Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001. Depending on the crime charged, those convicted were most commonly shot or stoned.
The statement referred to the man executed on Tuesday as “Ajmal, son of Naseem” and said he was convicted of murdering five people.
An official with the provincial Department of Communications and Culture told AFP that around 2,000 people attended the execution – including relatives of the victims – and that it was carried out in accordance with Sharia law, Islamic law.
In November, the country’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered judges to apply all aspects of Sharia law, including public executions for murder under the principle of “qisas” or the law of retribution, but also corporal punishment (stoning, flogging, limb amputation) . .
“I saw the criminal being executed because of Qisas after the victims’ family didn’t forgive him,” a witness to the execution who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.
“He was shot six times if I counted correctly. I couldn’t see if he was dead or not, but he was then transported by an ambulance,” he added.
“Even though people can see”
According to a provincial official, the sentence was carried out by an executioner, who shot the convict with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and not by a relative of the victims, as the qisas allowed.
During the execution in December, the victim’s father had his son’s killer shot.
“With crimes like this, it’s good that when committing such inhumane acts, people can see and hold fear,” said the same witness who spoke to AFP.
“There was a lot of fear, of emotions. We’re not used to things like that,” he added.
In the Ajmal case, all avenues of appeal had been exhausted and the final decision to carry out the sentence was made by the Commander-in-Chief himself, the Supreme Court said in a statement.
Hibatullah Akhundzada is “extremely well documented” in this file, which “was discussed with scholars at a large gathering,” the panel said.
“In the end, the killer’s Qisas order was approved and the order was given to enforce it,” she added.
Ajmal killed five people “in two phases,” the court said. He had shot dead four people in a house in Laghman province before killing another man elsewhere. The date of the murders was not given.
Upon returning to power, the Taliban promised to be more flexible in applying Sharia law, but they have largely returned to the strict interpretation of Islam that marked their first term in power.