Taliban slips back into former tyranny with first public execution since Afghanistan takeover

The Taliban, a terrorist organization fronting as a legitimate government, carried out its first public execution since the former insurgents took over Afghanistan last year, a spokesman said. The executed man was convicted of killing another man five years ago and stealing his motorcycle and cellular phone.

The execution itself was carried out with an assault rifle, shot three times by none other than the victim’s father. The Associated Press reports it “took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban government spokesman.”

Officials even traveled from the capital of Kabul in order to witness the execution. The Associated Press notes that “the announcement underscored the intentions by Afghanistan’s new rulers to continue hard-line policies implemented since they took over the country in August 2021 and to stick to their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.”

Mujahid defended the decision to carry out the punishment saying it was “made very carefully.” Mujahid is not alone in his mentality; the execution occurred “following approval by three of the country’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme leader.”

The Associated Press acknowledges this execution is indicative of a return to the Taliban’s tyrannical leadership: “During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.”

However, the Taliban had promised a change in policy: “After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, in the final weeks of the U.S. and NATO forces’ pullout from the country after 20 years of war, the Taliban had initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights.”

But instead, the Associated Press writes, “they have restricted rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade. They have also carried out public lashings across different provinces, punishing several men and women accused of theft, adultery or running away from home.”