Taliban on Tuesday executed a man in public in the eastern province of Khost after he was convicted of murder, marking the latest use of capital punishment since they returned to power in 2021.
The Taliban-run supreme court said in a statement that the man, identified as Mangal, son of Talah Khan, was found guilty of killing a person named Abdul Rahman with a Kalashnikov rifle. According to the statement, the convicted man was originally from Sanjak village in Paktia’s Syed Karam district but had been living in the Khost districts of Ali Shir and Terezio.
The statement said the case was reviewed “thoroughly” by courts of first instance, appeal and final review before the execution order was approved by their leader.
The execution was carried out in Khost’s central stadium in the presence of local Taliban officials, judicial representatives, security personnel and residents, the statement said.
In mid-October 2025, Taliban executed a man in Badghis province. The man, identified as Ismail from Jawand district, was executed by gunfire in front of a crowd at a stadium in Qala-e-Naw after being convicted of killing two people.
Taliban have resumed corporal punishments and public executions since returning to power in August 2021. Khost’s incident marks at least the 11th confirmed public execution since then, based on figures from the Taliban’s Supreme Court.
Human rights organisations have repeatedly called on the Taliban to stop such punishments and have criticised them for a lack of transparency in their judicial processes.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, condemned Tuesday’s execution as “inhuman, cruel and contrary to international law,” and called for an immediate halt to public executions and retribution killings.
