Taliban official: Strict punishment, executions will return

By KATHY GANNON

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — One of the founders of the Taliban and the main enforcer of its harsh mentation of Islamic instrumentality erstwhile they past ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line question volition erstwhile again transportation retired executions and amputations of hands, though possibly not successful public.

In an interrogation with The Associated Press, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi dismissed outrage implicit the Taliban’s executions successful the past, which sometimes took spot successful beforehand of crowds astatine a stadium, and helium warned the satellite against interfering with Afghanistan’s caller rulers.

“Everyone criticized america for the punishments successful the stadium, but we person ne'er said thing astir their laws and their punishments,” Turabi told The Associated Press, speaking successful Kabul. “No 1 volition archer america what our laws should be. We volition travel Islam and we volition marque our laws connected the Quran.”

Since the Taliban overran Kabul connected Aug. 15 and seized power of the country, Afghans and the satellite person been watching to spot whether they volition re-create their harsh regularisation of the precocious 1990s. Turabi’s comments pointed to however the group’s leaders stay entrenched successful a profoundly conservative, hard-line worldview, adjacent if they are embracing technological changes, similar video and mobile phones.

Turabi, present successful his aboriginal 60s, was justness curate and caput of the alleged Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — effectively, the spiritual constabulary — during the Taliban’s erstwhile rule.

At that time, the satellite denounced the Taliban’s punishments, which took spot successful Kabul’s sports stadium oregon connected the grounds of the sprawling Eid Gah mosque, often attended by hundreds of Afghan men.

Executions of convicted murderers were usually by a azygous changeable to the head, carried retired by the victim’s family, who had the enactment of accepting “blood money” and allowing the culprit to live. For convicted thieves, the punishment was amputation of a hand. For those convicted of road robbery, a manus and a ft were amputated.

Trials and convictions were seldom nationalist and the judiciary was weighted successful favour of Islamic clerics, whose cognition of the instrumentality was constricted to spiritual injunctions.

Turabi said that this time, judges — including women — would adjudicate cases, but the instauration of Afghanistan’s laws volition beryllium the Quran. He said the aforesaid punishments would beryllium revived.

“Cutting disconnected of hands is precise indispensable for security,” helium said, saying it had a deterrent effect. He said the Cabinet was studying whether to bash punishments successful nationalist and volition “develop a policy.”

In caller days successful Kabul, Taliban fighters person revived a punishment they commonly utilized successful the past — nationalist shaming of men accused of small-time theft.

On astatine slightest 2 occasions successful the past week, Kabul men person been packed into the backmost of a pickup truck, their hands tied, and were paraded astir to humiliate them. In 1 case, their faces were painted to place them arsenic thieves. In the other, stale breadstuff was hung from their necks oregon stuffed successful their mouth. It wasn’t instantly wide what their crimes were.

Wearing a achromatic turban and a bushy, unkempt achromatic beard, the stocky Turabi limped somewhat connected his artificial leg. He mislaid a limb and 1 oculus during warring with Soviet troops successful the 1980s.

Under the caller Taliban government, helium is successful complaint of prisons. He is among a fig of Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim Cabinet, who are connected a United Nations sanctions list.

During the erstwhile Taliban rule, helium was 1 of the group’s astir ferocious and uncompromising enforcers. When the Taliban took powerfulness successful 1996, 1 of his archetypal acts was to shriek astatine a pistillate journalist, demanding she permission a country of men, and to past woody a almighty slap successful the look of a antheral who objected.

Turabi was notorious for ripping euphony tapes from cars, stringing up hundreds of meters of destroyed cassettes successful trees and signposts. He demanded men deterioration turbans successful each authorities offices and his minions routinely bushed men whose beards had been trimmed. Sports were banned, and Turabi’s legion of enforcers forced men to the mosque for prayers 5 times daily.

In this week’s interrogation with the AP, Turabi spoke to a pistillate journalist.

“We are changed from the past,” helium said.

He said present the Taliban would let television, mobile phones, photos and video “because this is the necessity of the people, and we are superior astir it.” He suggested that the Taliban saw the media arsenic a mode to dispersed their message. “Now we cognize alternatively of reaching conscionable hundreds, we tin scope millions,” helium said. He added that if punishments are made public, past radical whitethorn beryllium allowed to video oregon instrumentality photos to dispersed the deterrent effect.

The U.S. and its allies person been trying to usage the menace of isolation — and the economical harm that would effect from it — to unit the Taliban to mean their regularisation and springiness different factions, minorities and women a spot successful power.

But Turabi dismissed disapproval implicit the erstwhile Taliban rule, arguing that it had succeeded successful bringing stability. “We had implicit information successful each portion of the country,” helium said of the precocious 1990s.

Even arsenic Kabul residents explicit fearfulness implicit their caller Taliban rulers, immoderate admit grudgingly that the superior has already go safer successful conscionable the past month. Before the Taliban takeover, bands of thieves roamed the streets, and relentless transgression had driven astir radical disconnected the streets aft dark.

“It’s not a bully happening to spot these radical being shamed successful public, but it stops the criminals due to the fact that erstwhile radical spot it, they deliberation ‘I don’t privation that to beryllium me,’” said Amaan, a storeowner successful the halfway of Kabul. He asked to beryllium identified by conscionable 1 name.

Another shopkeeper said it was a usurpation of quality rights but that helium was besides blessed helium tin unfastened his store aft dark.