Taliban leader Nooruddin Turabi poses in an interview in Kabul this Wednesday.Felipe Dana / AP
The Taliban Minister of Prisons, Nooruddin Turabi, has announced that the regime is going to resume the practice of executions and amputations of hands to punish criminals, although he has pointed out that they may not be carried out in public as in the past.
"Cutting off hands is very necessary for security," said the veteran Taliban in an interview with the US news agency Associated Press.
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Turabi, one of the founders of the fundamentalist movement and the main executor of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law, has warned that no one should interfere with the government.
“No one will tell us what our laws should be.
We will follow Islam and we will make our laws respecting the Koran “, he has sentenced.
At the same time, it has ignored the international outrage sparked by the executions carried out by the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, when they were expelled after the US-led invasion.
"Everyone criticized us, but we have never said anything about the laws and punishments of those who criticized us," Turabi said in Kabul.
Since the Taliban invaded Kabul on August 15 and took control of the country, Afghans and the international community have closely followed their movements to try to figure out whether they will recreate the harsh rule of the late 1990s.
The interview with Turabi shows how the leaders of the group remain anchored in the hard line of the movement and in a deeply conservative worldview.
Turabi, in his 60s now, was Minister of Justice and head of the so-called Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice during the previous Taliban government.
This last portfolio has already been recovered by the new executive, who has decided to establish its headquarters in the place that until now occupied the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
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In the AP interview, Turabi has agreed to speak with a journalist, a sign, according to him, that there have been changes from the past.
The mullah has explained that the basis of the laws of Afghanistan will be the Koran and the same punishments will be restored, but that this time women could also try the cases.
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