Executions and amputations will return in Afghanistan: “Cutting your hands is very necessary for security”

One of the founders of the Taliban and the main enforcer of their harsh interpretation of Islamic law during their last reign in Afghanistan said that outright movement will again carry out executions and amputations of the hand, but maybe not in public.

In an interview with the agency PA, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi dismisses outrage over past Taliban executions, which sometimes took place in front of a crowd in a stadium, and he warned the world not to interfere with Afghanistan’s new rulers.

“Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we never said anything about their laws and punishments”said Turabi, speaking in Kabul. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and make our laws on the Quran. “

Since the Taliban invaded Kabul on August 15 and took control of the country, Afghans and the world watched to see if they would recreate their tough rule of the late 1990s. Turabi’s comments highlighted how group leaders remain rooted in a deeply conservative and uncompromising worldview, even though they embrace technological changes, such as video and cell phones.

Turabi, who is now in his sixties, was Minister of Justice and head of the so-called Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. (in fact, the religious police) during the previous Taliban regime.

At the time, the world denounced the punishments of the Taliban, which took place in the stadium of Kabul or on the grounds of the huge Eid Gah mosque., which is often attended by hundreds of Afghan men.

Executions of convicted murderers were once with a single shot in the head, perpetrated by the victim’s family, who had the option of accepting “blood money” and allowing the culprit to live. For convicted thieves, the punishment was the amputation of a hand. Those found guilty of highway robbery had one hand and one foot amputated.

Trials and convictions were rarely public and justice leaned in favor of Islamic clericss, whose knowledge of the law was limited to religious mandates.

Turabi said that this time, judges, including women, will judge cases, but the basis of Afghan laws will be the Koran. He said the same penalties would be reinstated.

“Cutting off the hands is very necessary for safety”he said, and said it had a deterrent effect. He said the Cabinet was considering whether to apply sanctions in public and “Develop a policy.”

In recent days in Kabul, Taliban fighters have revived a punishment they used in the past: publicly shame men accused of petty theft.

On at least two occasions in the past week, men from Kabul have been placed in the back of a van with their hands tied and marched to humiliate them. In one case, their faces were painted to identify them as thieves. In the other, hard bread was hung around their necks or stuffed into their mouths. It was not immediately clear what his crimes were.

With a white turban and a bushy, unkempt white beard, the stocky Turabi limped slightly on his artificial leg. He lost a leg and an eye in fighting with Soviet troops in the 1980s.

Under the new Taliban government, he is in charge of prisons. He is among several Taliban leaders, including members of the all-male interim cabinet on the United Nations sanctions list.

Under the previous Taliban regime, he was one of the fiercest and most uncompromising executors of the bunch. When the Taliban took power in 1996, one of their first acts was to yell at a journalist, ask him to leave the men’s room, and then slap a forceful face at a man who opposes it.

Turabi was notorious for ripping music tapes from cars and hanging hundreds of meters of destroyed tapes on trees and billboards. He demanded that men wear turbans in all government offices and his henchmen regularly beat men whose beards had been trimmed. Sports were prohibited, and the Legion of Tourabi executioners forced men to go to the mosque to pray five times a day.

In this week’s interview with PA, Turabi spoke with a reporter. “We have changed from the past”, noted.

He said the Taliban would now allow television, cell phones, photos and videos “because it is the people’s need and we take it seriously.””. He suggested that the Taliban saw the media as a way to get their message out. “Now we know that instead of just reaching hundreds, we can reach millions,” he said. He added that if the sanctions are made public, then people can record videos or take photos to disseminate the deterrent effect.

The United States and its allies tried to use the threat of isolation and the economic damage that would result, pressure the Taliban to moderate their regime and give other factions, minorities and women a place in power.

But Turabi dismissed criticism from the previous Taliban government, arguing that it had succeeded in bringing stability. “We had total security in all parts of the country, ”he said of the late 1990s.

Even though the people of Kabul express their fear for their new Taliban leadership, some reluctantly admit that the capital has already become more safe in the past month. Before the Taliban takeover, gangs of thieves roamed the streets, and relentless crime had driven most people from the streets after dark.

“It’s not good to see these people being embarrassed in public, but it stops the criminals because when people see it they think ‘I don’t want it to be me'” said Amaan, a shopkeeper from downtown Kabul. He asked to be identified by one name.

Another trader said that It was a human rights violation, but he was also happy to be able to open his shop after dark.

(With AP information)

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