Twenty people were caned in public in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan on Wednesday as punishment for alleged adultery, theft and other crimes, a provincial official said.
Afghanistan’s new authorities have set out hardline policies since taking over the country in August 2021 that reflect their interpretation of Islamic or Sharia law.
Mohammad Qasim Riyaz, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the governor’s office in the southern province of Helmand, said the lashings took place at the sports stadium in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.
Riyaz said each man was flogged between 35 and 39 times, with the punishments carried out in front of Taliban provincial officials, religious clerics, elders and local people.
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An unspecified number of those punished also received prison terms in accordance with their crimes, Riyaz said.
Wednesday’s lashings in Helmand come a week after Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents returned to power last year.
A Taliban security personnel stands guard at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border at Spin Boldak on December 12, 2022.
(AFP via Getty Images)
The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in the western province of Farah in front of hundreds of onlookers and many senior Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the main government spokesman. Some officials came from the capital of Kabul.
The execution drew international criticism. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life,” spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said.
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In comments last week, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States condemned the public execution. Price said the Taliban’s future relationship with Washington depends “to a great extent on its actions when it comes to human rights.”
No foreign state has officially recognized the Taliban government that took over when US and NATO troops withdrew last year. The Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan before the 2001 US invasion.
