Public execution in Paktia marks Taliban’s shift in showcasing Sharia enforcement

Feature image: X/TOLO News. On 13 November 2024, the Taliban Supreme Court announced that a public execution had taken place in southern Paktia province. According to the official statement, a man named Mohammad Ayaz had been convicted of murder and executed in the morning on the same day at a sports stadium in Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktia. 

8am Media and RTA Radio reported that Ayaz was accused of killing a Taliban fighter named Habibullah in June 2021. The Supreme Court claimed that the victim’s family was consulted and chose not to forgive Ayaz, meaning the punishment was carried out under the principle of Qisas (the Islamic concept of justice through divine retribution).

Hurriyat Radio Pashto, a Taliban-affiliated outlet, and Tolo News, an independent Afghan news agency, published video reports showing hundreds of people moving towards the stadium to watch the execution. Photos and videos of people gathering to watch public punishments have circulated on social media before, but this is the first time Taliban officials appear to have allowed media outlets to film the surrounding area of an execution. 

Despite this seeming relaxation of a Taliban issued order against filming or photographing public punishments, it is notable that media limited themselves to footage from outside the stadium, not showing the actual event. Figure 1 below shows the geolocation of the footage of people walking towards the Gardez stadium on 13 November 2024.

This apparent change in policy is possibly an attempt by the de-facto authorities to showcase public support for the implementation of Sharia law. According to Hurriyat News, the implementation of Qisas was attended by “thousands of common people, scholars, officials and Mujahideen [Taliban members], and the measure was welcomed by the general public”. The Supreme Court also mentioned the presence of senior officials during the execution, including Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani, acting Interior Minister, and Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, acting Minister of Refugees.

On 13 November 2022, Taliban Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced that the judges of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan were required to implement Qisas when Sharia conditions were met. Last week’s execution in Paktia marked the fifth time Qisas has officially been enforced in the country since the Taliban takeover. The previous four executions took place in the provinces of Farah, Laghman, Ghazni, and Jawzjan, all of men convicted of murder.

A reported intervention by Sirjauddin Haqqani

On 16 November 2024, Hurriyat Radio Pashto released a second video report on the execution. The nine-minute footage showed Ayaz’s funeral and burial ceremony, and contained interviews with his family members, Taliban officials and locals. One of Ayaz’s relatives confirmed that Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban acting Minister of the Interior, offered the family AFN 20,000,000 (approximately GBP 232,400) to pardon the alleged murderer, which was refused. Ayaz’s father, who was also interviewed, praised Haqqani for his efforts in trying to prevent the execution, confirming the Supreme Court’s initial statement that there had been an attempt to spare Ayaz’s life.

Meanwhile, an Afghan account on X (formerly Twitter) - apparently a supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a fundamentalist group with increasingly tense relations with the Taliban -  claimed that Western powers aim to divide the Taliban into "moderates" and "hardliners". The account referenced The New York Times article published on 24 October 2024 that portrayed Haqqani as a moderate figure, and a potential “hope” for improved relations with the West. The account, however, argued that the Haqqanis presence at the execution shows that the Taliban are united in their commitment to their rigid implementation of Sharia law.

Remarks

Overall, the Taliban are apparently trying to push two major narratives through coverage of the event. Firstly, it emphasises alleged public support for Sharia punishments by showing a high attendance of locals at the execution. Second, it appears aimed at elevating Haqqani’s image, portraying him as a moderate who showed sympathy to Ayaz by urging the victim's family to pardon him. 

Furthermore, this is the only public execution so far attended exclusively by ministers from the Haqqani faction of the Taliban (Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani). Although this could partially be explained by the fact that both ministers are Paktia natives, it is notable that previous similar events have been attended by a mix of high-ranking Taliban officials from both the Kandahari and Haqqani factions. 

A possible reason is that the recent article in The New York Times triggered a reaction among the de facto authorities, and that the attendance of two ministers from the so-called “moderate” Haqqani faction was an attempt to project unity and dispel rumours of internal tensions.