The Taliban massively flogged 63 people at a sports stadium for crimes ranging from “running away from home” to “disrespect.”
The disturbing punishment event took place on Tuesday in Sar-e-Pul, northern Afghanistan, and saw 48 men and 15 women caned between 15 and 39 times.
In addition to the sickening physical abuse, it was reported locally that some victims also received prison sentences of between six months and five years for their crimes.
According to Voice of America, the group was the largest known since 2021 to receive public whippings at a Taliban event.
Local media reported that locals surprisingly approved of the caning, with one resident saying Toló News: “Young people will learn a lesson from the crimes they committed, and this will result in a decrease in crime and criminal activities.”
He also added that according to Sar-e-Pul officials, the people who received the harsh and brutal punishment were arrested by the security forces for committing crimes such as “running away from home, armed robbery, adultery, sodomy and disrespect “.
Some 48 men and 15 women were publicly flogged by the Taliban between 15 and 39 times on Tuesday in Sar-e-Pul, northern Afghanistan (file photo)
According to Voice of America, the group was the largest known since 2021 to receive public whippings at a Taliban event (file photo)
The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced that they will soon begin stoning women in public (file photo).
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), which has tried to maintain relations with the Taliban, condemned the event this Wednesday, along with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
“We are deeply concerned by the widespread and continued use of corporal punishment in Afghanistan,” UN Human Rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence said in a statement.
‘Corporal punishment is a clear violation of international human rights law.
“Afghanistan is a party to both the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the statement continues.
‘Under international law, all people have the right to be treated with respect due to their inherent human dignity and equality.
‘We again urge the de facto authorities to immediately end all forms of corporal punishment.
“Furthermore, we call on the de facto authorities (the Taliban) to ensure full respect for due process and fair trial rights, in particular access to legal representation, for anyone facing criminal charges.”
The use of a sports stadium to host the chilling event is not unheard of for the Taliban, after the terrorist organization convicted a man of murder and allowed the alleged victim’s brother to kill the convicted man in front of a packed stadium. of viewers in February.
“The man was shot five times with a rifle by the victim’s brother, according to an anonymous witness.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported at the time.
A month earlier, nine men were publicly flogged up to 39 times each by the Taliban in front of a packed soccer stadium.
Taliban brutally flogged nine men during public trial in packed football stadium
Under Sharia law, men arrested on unspecified charges were lashed between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and locals.
Draconian punishments were imposed at Kandahar’s Ahmad Shahi Stadium by the Islamist regime.
The draconian punishments were handed down at Kandahar’s Ahmad Shahi Stadium by the Islamist regime.
Under Sharia law, men arrested on unspecified charges were lashed between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and locals.
Hundreds of people gathered to watch the brutal sentences being administered, and some even climbed trees to get a good look at the proceedings.
The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced that they will soon begin stoning women in public.
Addressing Western officials in a voice message broadcast on state television, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the radical group’s supreme leader, called Western human rights advocates “representatives of the devil.”
‘You say it is a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death. But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery,” she told the West in her harshest comments since taking over Afghanistan in 2021.
‘We will whip women in public. We will stone them to death in public,’ she announced.
‘All this goes against your democracy, but we will continue to do it.
“We both say that we defend human rights; we do it as representatives of God and you as representatives of the devil,” he added.
The Taliban, despite initial promises of a more moderate government, began carrying out harsh public punishments soon after coming to power.
The punishments are similar to those applied during his previous government in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
The Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the collapse of the internationally supported government and the withdrawal of all Western troops led by the United States and the United Kingdom after almost 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.