Barney Davis
Published December 2, 2025 5:57pm
Updated December 2, 2025 5:59pm
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The moment the convict was shot as crowds of spectators shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’
Three shots rang out and thousands packed into a cricket stadium cheered after a 13-year-old executed the man found guilty of killing his family.
The public execution, echoing the worst days of Taliban rule, was of a man who the Supreme Court ruled had killed 13 members of the same family including nine children and their mother.
The man had been convicted along with another of entering a family home in Khost province and shooting them all dead.
The victims’ relatives had been offered the option of forgiveness and reconciliation that would have spared the man’s life, but instead requested the death penalty, the court said.
The teenager shot the condemned man three times as some of the 80,000-strong crowds shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Mujib Rahman Rahmani, a Khost resident at the stadium, showed support for the morbid spectacle.
These executions could ‘prove to be positive’ because ‘no one will dare to kill anyone in the future’, he said.
The Taliban had banned all camera phones from entering the stadium in the east of their country.
A previous public execution – the 11th since the Taliban returned to power – – took place in October, when another man was put to death in front of thousands.
Onlookers gather outside the stadium for the grim spectacle
Men are seen entering the stadium on Tuesday to witness the grim spectacle (Picture: AP)
People leave after watching the public execution of a murder convict at Khost stadium (Picture: EPA)
During their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban regularly carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.
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Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law, which has included a return of public executions, as well as bans on Afghan women and girls from secondary school and university education and from most forms of employment.
Families drive in their cars to get to the stadium on time (Picture: EPA)
80,000 people turned out to witness the execution
Corporal punishment — mainly flogging — has been common under the Taliban authorities and employed for crimes including theft, adultery and alcohol consumption.
United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan Richard Bennet posted on Xthat reports had suggested the public execution was imminent and called for it to be halted.
‘Public executions are inhumane, a cruel and unusual punishment, and contrary to international law’, he posted.
Public executions since the Taliban returned to power
December 7, 2022: A man named Taj Mir was executed at a crowded sports stadium in Farah province for murder.
November 13, 2024: A convicted murderer was executed by gunfire at a sports stadium in Khost province.
April 11, 2025: Four men were publicly executed across three separate provinces (Badghis, Nimroz, and Farah) for murder.
December 2, 2025: A man identified as Mangal was executed in a sports stadium in Khost province
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