Taliban execute couple in first stoning since 2001
Taliban militants stoned a young couple to death for adultery after they ran away from their families in northern Afghanistan, the Associated Press reports.
Amnesty International said it was the first confirming stoning in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban rule in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The Taliban-ordered killing comes at a time when international rights groups have raised worries that attempts to negotiate with the Taliban to bring peace to Afghanistan could mean a step backward for human rights in the country. When the Islamist extremists ruled Afghanistan, women were not allowed to leave their houses without a male guardian, and public killings for violations of their harsh interpretation of the Quran were common.
This weekend's stoning appeared to arise from an affair between a married man and a single woman in Kunduz province's Dasht-e-Archi district.
The woman, Sadiqa, was 20 years old and engaged to another man, said the Kunduz provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raza Yaqoubi. Her lover, 28-year-old Qayum, left his wife to run away with her, and the two had holed up in a friend's house five days ago, said district government head, Mohammad Ayub Aqyar.
They were discovered by Taliban operatives on Sunday and stoned to death in front a crowd of about 150 men, Aqyar said.
First the woman was brought out and stoned, then the man a half an hour later, Aqyar said. He decried the punishment, which he said was ordered by two local Taliban commanders.
A spokesman for the provincial government also condemned the act.
"It is against all human rights and international conventions," said spokesman Mabubullah Sayedi. "There was no court. It was cruel."
Amnesty International called the stoning a "heinous crime" that showed the Taliban and other insurgent groups "are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans."
"Amnesty International has warned that the Afghan government should not sacrifice human rights, particularly the rights of women and minorities, in the name of reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgent groups," Amnesty said.
A Taliban spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ancient practice of death by stoning has been abandoned in all but a handful of countries. It is still a legal punishment in some countries, like Iran, which justify it under Shariah, or Islamic law, although human rights activists say the Quran never specifically prescribed stoning for adultery.
Last month, Iran's religious authorities called off the planned stoning of a woman convicted of cheating on her husband. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence — which would have been Iran's first stoning since 2008 — was lifted following a campaign by politicians, rights groups, diplomats and celebrities around the world.
Comments
Sick.
Posted by: Dana | August 16, 2010 11:49 AM
I couldn't think of a better way to put it than Dana just said. This is why it is impossible to negotiate with the Taliban.
Posted by: rino | August 16, 2010 12:53 PM
rino - The difficulty you describe above, in negotiating with the Taliban holds true in varying degrees with trying to negotiate with any religion that believes it is the possessor of absolute truth. Look at the abortion issue for example, where a line has been draw n in the sand and which religionists insist on forcing on the rest of us on their terms only. Wherever religion has free reign, it is always so. It is only under the strict enforcement of secular governance where the rights of ALL religions can be protected, and protected from the excesses of each other as well.
Posted by: Robert Littel | August 16, 2010 1:39 PM
Littel - The abortion issue hardly compares to what the Taliban just did. before you drag nutcases like Tiller into this people like that aren't following the commands of their own. About the only thing we agree on is the need to keep religion and government seperated. Religion and governement has proven too often to be a bad combination.
Posted by: rino | August 16, 2010 2:12 PM
What is really discouraging is the resurgence of the Taliban despite us spending millions of dollars on Afghanistan. We will have to leave one day soon and Afghanistan will be back to square one--just like Najibullah was executed after the Soviets left, Karzai will be executed, unless he makes an accommodation with the Taliban, and the Taliban will run rough shod over the population of this unfortunate country -- all we have done thus far--which isn't much-- will be for nought. Where the hell is Karzai--the man is king of Kabul--no more--and even that is in doubt sometimes. He is doing nothing to protect his own people. The behavior of the Taliban has nothing to do with religion--the Taliban is a political force, blood thirsty and vindictive, its aim is to terrorize and subjugate the populace, every policeman in Afghanistan is for sale--the Taliban has infiltrated the security forces and all it needs is for NATO and the Americans to leave--Afghanistan will then collapse into the arms of the madmen that country seems disgorge in great numbers. History will repeat itself. Osama will return to Afghanistan in splendor--billions of American dollars spent and still being spent--disgusting, considering NATO couldn't protect this couple or anyone else being mauled and mutilated by the Taliban.
R Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | August 17, 2010 8:44 PM
"The behavior of the Taliban has nothing to do with religion"? How naive.
Posted by: terpfan | August 18, 2010 9:24 AM
Wow this is why religion has done so much damage to the world , stoning people to death how human . where in any religious text does it say to stone people to death.
Posted by: kwolf443 | August 19, 2010 10:54 PM
Maybe that's why Atticus refused to play football for the Methodists.
Posted by: Scout | August 20, 2010 8:17 AM
The Taliban are so two-faced that the enforced ban on growing opium poppies, went out the door when they needed cash. It would not surprise me if they end up selling toilet paper with the image of Mohammad on each sheet, if it served their purposes.
Its too bad that we didn't go into Afghanistan in full force (instead of holding out so many resources for the illegal invasion of Iraq) and crushed Al Qaeda and the Taliban trash that gave them shelter. The Bush regime's ignoring of Afghanistan, by whoring after Iraqi oil, allowed them to escape, regroup, rearm, and make what should have been a slam dunk, into the drawn out stalemate we have left to us as the Bush legacy.
Posted by: Robert Littel | August 20, 2010 3:49 PM
Littel - Other than the whoring for oil comment I agree with you.
Posted by: rino | August 20, 2010 4:38 PM
Nothing would be a slam dunk when comes to the Taliban--I agree with you Robert about the whoring for oil but the slam dunk part I disagree with because the Taliban are hardy bastards--in the end we will leave and they will stay--they grow from the soil like dragon's teeth and they will always regroup and redeploy--they are playing in their own backyard and we are playing thousands of miles away in foreign terrain. It is also not naive to say that the Taliban's behavior has little to do with religion. The Taliban is a political force with rabid ambitions and Robert hit the nail on the head when he said that they will sell toilet tissue rolls with Mohammed's image on them if that will fetch them money to torture the people of Afghanistan and tyrannize them.
R Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | August 20, 2010 8:23 PM