Imagine a sports stadium in eastern Afghanistan, packed with 80,000 spectators, not for a game, but to witness a chilling act of retribution.
The Daily Mail reported that on Tuesday, in Khost, a man named Mangal was publicly executed by a 13-year-old relative of his victims, under the Taliban’s strict “Qisas” policy of retaliation.
This grim event, ordered by Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada after rulings from multiple courts, saw Mangal convicted of murdering 13 family members, including children and women.
The sheer scale of the crowd—80,000 strong—marks this as one of the largest public executions since the Taliban regained control in 2021.
Authorities even issued notices urging attendance, with senior local officials present, as footage captured gunshots and chants of “Allahu Akbar” echoing through the arena.
Mangal’s two sons, also sentenced to death for their alleged role in the murders in Ali Shir and Terezio districts, escaped execution for now, as victims’ relatives living abroad must be present to finalize the verdict.
Mostaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s police in Khost, noted the delay, saying the relatives “must be present to approve or reject the enforcement of retribution under the Taliban interpretation of Islamic law.”
While that sounds like a nod to due process, let’s not kid ourselves—this is a system where a teenager pulls the trigger in a stadium spectacle, hardly a beacon of modern justice.
The victims’ family had the option to forgive Mangal, which could have spared his life, but they opted for the death penalty instead, a choice that fueled this public display.
This execution brings the tally to 12 men publicly killed since the Taliban’s return, alongside a resurgence of corporal punishments like flogging and stoning for lesser crimes.
Just this April, four men were executed in stadiums across three provinces on a single day, with thousands watching, including Taliban officials, as relatives of victims carried out the shootings.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, condemned such acts on X, calling them “inhumane, cruel, and an unusual punishment, contrary to international law.”
Bennett’s words ring true for many in the West, yet on the ground, some locals see these harsh measures as a deterrent, with one Khost resident, Mujib Rahman Rahmani, suggesting they could “prove to be positive” by preventing future crimes.
While the Taliban’s grip tightens with bans on women’s education and employment, alongside these brutal public punishments, international voices like Amnesty International and the UN decry the erosion of basic rights, pointing to trials that fall short of fair standards.
Still, as Western governments warn against travel to Afghanistan, nearly 7,000 tourists visited in 2024, some influencers even painting a rosy picture online— a sanitized view that critics argue glosses over the stark realities, especially for Afghan women under oppressive rules.
