After coming to power in Afghanistan: Taliban want to execute and amputate again

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Taliban at prayer

Photo: BULENT KILIC / AFP

For several weeks now, the radical Islamic Taliban have been back in power in Afghanistan - and have pledged to respect human rights.

It is slowly becoming clear what they mean.

A founding member of the Taliban has now announced in an interview that there will continue to be executions and hand amputations as punishment.

But possibly no longer in public.

In an interview with the AP news agency, quoted by the Guardian, Taliban member Mullah Nooruddin Turabi warned other countries against interfering with the new rules in Afghanistan.

"Everyone criticized us for our punishments in the stadium, but we never said anything about their punishments," he said.

Nobody will dictate their laws to them.

The Taliban followed Islam and would make their rules accordingly.

During the Taliban's rule in the 1990s, Turabi was Minister of Justice and head of the "Ministry for the Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vices" - a moral police force that enforced Sharia law in Afghanistan.

It was responsible, for example, for forcing people to pray or for punishing men for not wearing a beard.

During this time, punishments were often carried out in public in the sports stadium in front of a large number of spectators.

Convicted murderers were usually shot dead by a member of the victim's family.

Thieves' hand was cut off.

"Cutting off your hands is very important for safety"

Today Turabi is responsible for prisons.

The member of the Taliban's transitional government is also on a UN sanctions list.

"Cutting off your hands is very important for safety," said Turabi.

However, the Taliban would still develop strategies for how it should be carried out.

Amnesty International recently complained about targeted human rights violations by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Islamists are in the process of dismantling the achievements of the past 20 years in the field of human rights, the organization said.

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