A convicted murderer was shot dead Tuesday on the grounds of a mosque in provincial Afghanistan, officials said, the second public execution since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
“He was executed in public in the town of Sultan Ghazi Baba, centre of Laghman province so that he could suffer and become a lesson for others,” said a statement from provincial information officers.
It named the murderer as “Ajmal, son of Naseem”, adding he had killed five people.
An official at the provincial information and culture department told AFP around 2,000 people watched the execution — including relatives of Ajmal’s victims — and that the sentence and execution were carried out in accordance with Sharia law.
Although public executions were more common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996-2001, the first they carried out since returning to power was in December last year in Farah province.