Taliban Executes Two Afghans Convict Of Murders At Football Stadium In Ghazni: Report

The Taliban government in Afghanistan publicly executed two men convicted of murder in a football stadium in the eastern part of the country on Thursday, a report in AFP said.

The two convicted men were executed by shooting to the back in Ghazni city after a Supreme Court read aloud a death warrant signed by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is in hiding.

"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," Supreme Court official Atiqullah Darwish said, as per the report. 

The two convicts were identified as Syed Jamal from central Wardak province and Gul Khan from Ghazni, both guilty of knife murders in September 2017 and January 2022 respectively.  

The public execution was attended by thousands of people who gathered in the stadium in the Ali Lala area of the city of Ghazni to witness the capital punishment.

Among the attendees were also the families of the victims, including women and children. The kin of the victims were asked if they wanted to grant the condemned a last-minute reprieve, but they declined in both cases.

According to an AP report, the executions started shortly before 1 pm. A total of 15 bullets were fired, eight at one of the men while seven at the other. Ambulances later took away their bodies.

The report further said that the latest killings were the third and fourth public executions since the Taliban came to power in 2021 after toppling the Ashraf Ghani government and exiting the US forces from the country.

The United Nations has strongly criticized the Taliban government for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings and urged them to halt such practices.

Such executions were common during Taliban's previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, where the group carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.