Taliban have flogged three people, including a woman, in the northern province of Faryab after convicting them of what they described as “illicit relations” and fleeing home.
In a statement, the Taliban Supreme Court said the punishments were carried out in the districts of Khwaja Musa and Qaramqol.
The court said each of the three received between 30 and 39 lashes, and that two of them were also sentenced to three years in prison. It said the punishments were carried out after court approval and in the presence of Taliban officials and local residents.
The floggings come amid a rise in public corporal punishments carried out by the Taliban since the start of the new year.
Official figures released by the Taliban supreme court show that at least 37 people were flogged across 10 provinces in less than the first week of the year, a sharp increase compared with the final days of the previous month.
According to the court’s data, floggings have been carried out in provinces including Balkh, Uruzgan, Nangarhar, Khost, Ghazni, Kabul, Parwan, Kunar, Paktia and Herat, for offences including alcohol sales, theft, adultery, same-sex relations and currency forgery.
Human rights activists have said the Taliban have used corporal punishment to instil fear among the population, while some citizens have expressed concern that such penalties are becoming normalised.
Taliban have defended the punishments as part of their interpretation of Islamic law.
