The Taliban publicly executed a convicted murderer in a packed sports stadium for his role in a gun attack that left 10 people dead.
The man, identified as Mangal, was executed in front of a crowd at a venue in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, the country’s Supreme Court said in a statement on Tuesday.
The incident brings to 12 the number of men publicly put to death since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, according to an AFP tally.
He had been sentenced to ‘retaliatory punishment’ for killing a man after his case was ‘examined very precisely and repeatedly’, the court said.
‘The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace, but they refused,’ it added.
Authorities had urged people to attend the execution in official notices shared widely on Monday.
They said he was one of several attackers who opened fire on a house in January 2025, killing 10 people, including three women.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said Tuesday – before the public execution – that such acts were ‘inhumane, cruel, and an unusual punishment, contrary to international law’.
‘They must stop,’ he said in a post on X.
Illustrative image shows an alleged murderer being executed before a crowd in Kabul in 1998
Taliban security personnel stand guard at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Qala-i-Naw in the Badghis province on October 16, 2025
In October, an Afghan who murdered a man and his heavily pregnant wife was executed by a relative of the victims, under the Taliban‘s retaliatory punishment system.
The man was executed in front of crowds at a sports stadium in Qala-i-Naw, the capital of Badghis province, the Supreme Court said in a statement.
The man was shot three times by a relative of the victims in front of thousands of onlookers, witnesses told news agencies.
The man had been ‘sentenced to retaliatory punishment’ for shooting a couple.
‘The murderer killed two people, a man and his wife, who was around eight months pregnant,’ Matiullah Muttaqi, the information chief for Badghis province, said.
The execution followed a review by three courts and final approval from Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, he said.
‘The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused,’ the Supreme court statement said.
‘Many people came to watch the execution, including the victims’ family, who exercised their right according to Islamic law,’ said Juma Khan, 36, who witnessed the event.
Afghans walk towards a football stadium ahead of the public execution of a man, by the Taliban at Gardez in Paktia province on November 13, 2024
Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out in sports stadiums.
In April, four men were put to death in sports stadiums in three separate provinces on the same day in front of thousands of spectators, including Taliban officials.
Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Badghis province.
‘They were made to sit and turn their backs to us. Relatives from the victims’ families stood behind and shot them with a gun,’ Mohammad Iqbal Rahimyar, a 48-year-old spectator, told AFP.
‘If the family of the victim had forgiven the men it would be better, otherwise it’s God’s order, and should be implemented,’ a 35-year-old man who gave his name as Zabihullah said outside the stadium.
A third man was executed in Zaranj in Nimroz province and the fourth was in Farah city in the western province of the same name.
‘It’s good that the Islamic Emirate shows its politics and force. I am very happy with that,’ said another 30-year-old spectator named Javid, referring to the Taliban government’s official name.
Amnesty International demanded that Taliban authorities immediately stop public executions, which it called a ‘gross affront to human dignity’.