The Taliban forced a 13-year-old boy to carry out a public execution, with 80,000 people packing a sports stadium to watch the young teen shoot the man who murdered 13 members of his family.
Video shared online shows thousands of cheering people packing into the stadium in the eastern city of Khost on Tuesday for the sick spectacle that the United Nations condemned as “inhumane” and “contrary to international law.”
The young boy was made to shoot the murderer, named Mangal, in a Sharia-law “retaliation punishment” known as Qisas, which is akin to an “eye for an eye.”
Some 80,000 people are estimated to have attended the execution. X/@NilofarAyoubi“The family of the victim was offered the option of forgiveness and retaliation, but … they refused and insisted on Qisas,” the Supreme Court of Afghanistan said in a statement on social media.
Although the statement did not say who carried out the execution, it was a 13-year-old boy related to those who’d been murdered, according to Afghanistan news outlet AMU TV.
Mangal’s two sons are also due to be executed for helping their dad, the court said — though their deaths have been delayed until other relatives of the slain family return to the region to watch.
It was the 11th public execution since the Taliban regained power in 2021 in the wake of the disastrous withdrawal of US forces that left 13 troops dead. It was the largest of those, too, with 80,000 packed into the stadium, AMU TV said.
After the execution, “prayers were made for the strengthening of the national security, for the people’s better access to their legitimate rights, and for the proper implementation of Islamic Sharia throughout the country,” the supreme court claimed.
United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan Richard Bennet had called for the execution to be stopped before it was carried out.
It was the 11th execution carried out by the Taliban since they regained control of Afghanistan in 2021. AP
The 80,000 who watched made it the largest crowd at an execution since the Taliban returned to power. AFP via Getty Images“Public executions are inhumane, a cruel and unusual punishment, and contrary to international law,” he posted on X.
Mangal was convicted along with others of entering a family home in Khost province and shooting to death an extended family, including nine children and their mother, Khost police spokesman Mustaghfir Gorbaz said.
During their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban regularly carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.
With Post wires
