Afghanistan: Taliban executes two murder convicts publicly in stadium

With hundreds watching, the Taliban on Thursday executed two murder convicts at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan.

Supreme Court official Atiqullah Darwish read aloud the death warrant signed by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The pair were responsible for the stabbing deaths of two victims in separate attacks, said the court statement.

The deceased were identified as Syed Jamal from central Wardak province and Gul Khan from Ghazni. 

However, it was unclear who did the stabbing, the two convicted men or others.

Three lower courts and the Taliban's supreme leader, had ordered the executions in retribution for their purported crimes, said the statement.

Though the people crowded outside the stadium in the Ali Lala area of the city of Ghazni pleaded with relatives of the victims to forgive the convicts, but they refused to do so.

Abu Abu Khalid Sarhadi, a spokesman for Ghazni police, said that relatives of the victims executed the two men.

The executions started shortly before 1 pm. 15 bullets were fired, eight at one of the men and seven at the other. Later, ambulances took their bodies away.

Since Taliban seized power in 2021, this is the third and fourth public executions that took place in Afghanistan.

In the late 1990s, the Taliban used to regularly carry out public executions, flogging and stonings.