GAZNI, Afghanistan — Thousands of people witnessed the public execution of two convicted men at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan on Thursday while relatives of the victims opened fire.
According to a court statement, the Taliban Supreme Court ruled that the two men were responsible for stabbing two victims to death in separate attacks.
The two men are Sayyid Jamal from the central province of Wardak and Gul Khan from Ghazni province, although it is unclear who stabbed the two convicted men or others.
The statement added that three lower courts and the Taliban's top leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the executions in retaliation for their alleged crimes.
On Thursday, people gathered outside the stadium in the Alilara area of the city of Ghazni to climb in, and religious scholars pleaded with the relatives of the victims to forgive the prisoners, but they refused.
Abu Abu Khalid Sarhadi, a spokesman for Ghazni, said the victims' relatives executed the two men. He did not say what type of gun they were using.
Executions began just before 1 p.m. A total of 15 rounds were fired, of which one person had 8 rounds and the other had 7 rounds. An ambulance then removed their bodies.
These are the third and fourth public executions since the Taliban seized power in 2021, when U.S. and NATO forces were chaotically withdrawn from Afghanistan.
The United Nations has strongly criticized the Taliban's public executions, flogging and stoning since they seized power, and has called on the country's rulers to stop the practice.
During Taliban rule in Afghanistan in the late 90s, the Taliban regularly carried out public executions, flogging and stoning. Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge