Taliban publicly flogged 12 people in central Ghor province of Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, sources told Amu TV.
A source, who witnessed the incident and wanted to remain anonymous, said that each suspect was whipped between 25 and 39 times while thousands of people watched at Ghor stadium.
“The Taliban this afternoon whipped six people over charges of robbery, four people for drinking alcohol, and two others, including a woman, were lashed for running away from home and moral crimes in the presence of people,” the source said.
Abdul Ahmad, another resident who witnessed the public whipping, told Amu TV that the Taliban did not allow anyone to take footage or pictures during the flogging.
Ghor governor’s press office said in a statement that the Taliban meted out 39 lashes to the robbers, 25 to 35 lashes to the people who drank alcohol, and 29 to 39 to the people who were accused of a moral crime and running away from home.
This comes after the Taliban whipped seven people in the province last week.
The Taliban began public floggings after their leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered judges in Kandahar last month to implement strict Sharia law including Qisas, Hudd, and public flogging.
The group has publicly lashed around 100 people over the past 30 days across Afghanistan.
As many as 19 people, including 9 women, were whipped in northern Takhar province days after the order.
Thereafter, 49 people, seven men, and three women in Logar; seven men and two women in Ghor; three people in Paktika; and 18 men and 9 women in Parwan, were flogged for robbery and having affairs.
The Taliban, meanwhile, flogged 20 men in the stadium of Lashkargah city, the capital of Helmand province, on Wednesday.
The Taliban stated that the suspects were lashed from 35 to 39 times for having gay sex.
On the same day, seven people, including two women, on charges of having affairs and running away from home, were whipped in Zabul province.
A Taliban official said that one woman was lashed 39 times for adultery and was sentenced to three years imprison and another woman received 20 lashes and one-year imprisonment.
The Taliban also implemented the first public Qisas or retributive execution of a man accused of murder in western Farah province on December 7 this year.
Tajmir, who was convicted of stabbing a man to death six years ago, was shot dead by the victim’s father on Wednesday, at a stadium in front of about one thousand spectators including high-ranking Taliban officials.
Among the officials who were spectators to the execution were Taliban deputy chief minister Mullah Baradar, Taliban supreme court chief Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Taliban interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban minister of vice and virtue Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban justice minister Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Sharaee, and Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The United Nations, meanwhile, called the Taliban’s flogging of Afghan citizens a “cruel” act. In a press conference Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN, stated: “We are against any kind of cruel punishments.”
