Taliban holds mass flogging for 63 people at sport stadium – with offences ranging from ‘fleeing from home’ to ‘disrespect’

The Taliban staged a mass flogging of 63 people at a sports stadium for offenses ranging from “fleeing from home” to “disrespect.”

The disturbing punishment event took place on Tuesday in Sar-e-Pul, northern Afghanistan, in which 48 men and 15 women were flogged between 15 and 39 times.

In addition to the sickening physical abuse, some victims are also believed to have received local prison sentences of six months to five years for their crimes.

According to Voice of America, the group was the largest since 2021 to receive public floggings at a Taliban event.

Local media reported that locals shockingly approved of the lashings, a resident said Tolo news: ‘Young people will learn a lesson from the crimes they have committed, and this will result in a decrease in crime and criminal activities’.

It also added that according to Sar-e-Pul officials, those who received the harsh and brutal punishment were arrested by security forces for committing crimes including “fleeing from home, armed robbery, adultery, sodomy and lack of respect’.

According to Voice of America, the group was the largest known to receive public floggings at a Taliban event as of 2021 (file photo)

The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced they will soon begin publicly stoning women to death (file photo)

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has been trying to maintain relations with the Taliban, condemned the event on Wednesday, along with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

“We are deeply concerned by the widespread, continued use of corporal punishment in Afghanistan,” U.N. human rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence said in a statement.

‘Corporal punishment is a clear violation of international human rights law.

“Afghanistan is a party to both the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the statement continued.

‘Under international law, all people have the right to be treated with respect for their inherent human dignity and equality.

“We once again urge the de facto authorities to immediately cease all forms of corporal punishment.

‘We further appeal to the actual authorities [the Taliban] to ensure full respect for the right to a fair trial and due process, in particular access to legal representation, for all persons facing criminal charges.”

Using a sports stadium to stage the chilling event is not unheard of for the Taliban, after the terrorist organization convicted a man of murder and allowed the alleged victim’s brother to kill the convicted man in front of a stadium packed with people. spectators in February.

“According to an anonymous witness, the man was shot five times with a gun by the victim’s brother.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Freedom (RFE/RL) reported at the time.

A month earlier, nine men were publicly flogged up to 39 times by the Taliban in front of a packed football stadium.

The Taliban brutally flogged nine men during a public show trial in a packed football stadium

Under Sharia law, the men arrested on unspecified charges were flogged between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and locals.

The draconian punishments were handed out by the Islamic regime at the Ahmad Shahi Stadium in Kandahar.

The draconian punishments were handed out by the Islamic regime at the Ahmad Shahi Stadium in Kandahar.

Under Sharia law, the men arrested on unspecified charges were flogged between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and local residents.

Hundreds gathered to watch the brutal punishments being meted out, and some even climbed trees to get a good view of the proceedings.

The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced it would soon begin publicly stoning women to death.

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the radical group’s supreme leader, addressed Western officials in a voice message on state television, calling Western human rights defenders “representatives of the devil.”

“You say it is a violation of women’s rights if we stone them to death. But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery,” he told the West in his harshest remarks since taking over Afghanistan in 2021.

‘We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public,” he announced.

“This is all against your democracy, but we will continue with it.

“We both say we defend human rights – we do it as God’s representative and you as the devil’s,” he added.

The Taliban, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule, began publicly carrying out harsh punishments shortly after coming to power.

The sentences are similar to those during their previous rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the collapse of the internationally backed government and the withdrawal of all US- and British-led Western forces after nearly two decades of involvement in the war in Afghanistan.