Twenty people were lashed in public on Wednesday in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as punishment for alleged adultery, theft, and other crimes, a provincial official said.
Afghanistan’s new authorities have set hardline policies since they took over the country in August 2021 that reflect their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Mohammad Qasim Riyaz, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the governor’s office in southern Helmand province, said the lashings took place at the sports stadium in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.
Riyaz said each man was lashed between 35 to 39 times, and the punishments were carried out before provincial Taliban officials, religious clerics, elders, and local people.
Wednesday’s lashings in Helmand come a week after the Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents returned to power last year.
The execution drew international criticism. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life,” spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said.
No foreign state has officially recognized the Taliban government that took over as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew last year. The Taliban formerly ruled Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion of 2001.
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