AFP, Kabul

Four men were publicly executed in Afghanistan yesterday, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power.

The executions at sports stadiums in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an AFP tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most carried out publicly in sports stadiums.

Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city.

“They were made to sit and turn their backs to us. Relatives from the victims’ families stood behind and shot them with a gun,” Mohammad Iqbal Rahimyar, a 48-year-old spectator, told AFP.