KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban authorities in Afghanistan’s western Herat province killed two men accused of theft and paraded their bodies across the city with the intention of deterring crime, the group’s police command said on Thursday.
Sayed Masood Hosseini, spokesperson for the Taliban police command in Herat, said the two individuals were identified during a “criminal activity” in Injil district and were killed following an armed clash with Taliban security forces.
A video circulated on social media shows the bodies of the two men placed in the back of a “Ranger”-type pickup truck and driven through the streets of Herat city by Taliban fighters.
The incident is the latest example of the Taliban’s harsh enforcement of Islamic punishments in Herat. Local authorities have previously transported the bodies of individuals accused of theft and other crimes through city streets or displayed them in public areas.
In September 2021, shortly after seizing power, the group displayed the bodies of four alleged kidnappers killed in clashes in Herat.
The Taliban have resumed public executions and floggings across Afghanistan since returning to power in August 2021. They have executed at least 12 people for murder and flogged thousands, including women and children, on various charges.
The United Nations and International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have strongly condemned the public display of bodies, executions, and corporal punishments, describing them as cruel, inhuman, degrading, and a violation of human dignity. They have repeatedly called on the Taliban to immediately halt such practices.
Taliban authorities defend the practices as fully consistent with their interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia) and essential for deterring crime and restoring social order. They have dismissed international criticism as biased against Islam and as unacceptable interference in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.
