KABUL — Taliban on Thursday publicly flogged four individuals in Ghazni province, continuing a wave of corporal punishment that has drawn widespread international condemnation.
According to a statement from the Taliban-run Supreme Court, the four were convicted of theft. Two were sentenced to 10 years in prison and 39 lashes each, while the other two received five-year prison terms and the same number of lashes.
The latest punishments follow a similar incident in Farah province’s Bala Buluk district, where three individuals were flogged last week on charges of “illicit relations and theft,” the court said.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have revived and expanded their use of corporal and capital punishment under their interpretation of Islamic law. According to official figures released by the Supreme Court, 456 people — including at least 60 women — were flogged in 26 provinces over the past year, including in the capital, Kabul, and Kandahar.
Over the past three years, the Taliban say they have carried out at least 798 floggings and issued rulings for 176 executions, 37 stonings, and four cases in which individuals were killed by having a wall collapsed on them — a punishment drawn from early Islamic history.
In a separate statement, Taliban authorities said they plan to publicly execute three individuals in Nimroz province on Friday following convictions for murder.
The surge in public punishments has intensified concerns from human rights organizations, which accuse the Taliban of institutionalizing violence and eroding fundamental freedoms, particularly for women and marginalized groups.
