Four men publicly executed in one day in Afghanistan

KABUL: Four men were publicly executed in Afghanistan on Friday, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban´s return to power.

The executions at sports stadiums in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an AFP tally. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city.

“They were made to sit and turn their backs to us. Relatives from the victims´ families stood behind and shot them with a gun,” Mohammad Iqbal Rahimyar, a 48-year-old spectator, told AFP.

The men had been “sentenced to retaliatory punishment” for shooting other men, after their cases were “examined very precisely and repeatedly”, the Supreme Court said in a statement. The families of the victims turned down the opportunity to offer the men amnesty, it said.

“If the family of the victim had forgiven the men it would be better, otherwise it´s God´s order, and should be implemented,” a 35-year-old man who gave his name as Zabihullah told AFP outside the stadium. Afghans had been invited to “attend the event” in official notices shared widely on Thursday. A third man was executed in Zaranj in Nimroz province and the fourth was in Farah city in the western province of the same name, the Supreme Court said.