Taliban stone to death Afghan couple over adultery

KUNDUZ - Taliban militants stoned a man and woman to death in northern Afghanistan on suspicion of adultery, the provincial governor said Monday.

The killings took place in Dasht-e-Archi district in the northern province of Kunduz Sunday, governor Mohammed Omer said.

“A man and woman were stoned to death in public in a bazaar in Mullah Quli area,” he said. The bazaar and most parts of the province are under Taliban control.

The insurgents read out a statement in the bazaar and then started throwing stones at the couple until they were dead, he said. Their bodies were returned to their families, the governor said without providing more information.

Militants executed a pregnant woman on charges of adultery in western part of the country last week. A Taliban court in Qadis, a remote district in Badghis province, found Bibi Sanawbar, a 40-year-old widow, “guilty because she got pregnant by having illicit affairs”.

During their 1996-2001 reign, the Taliban staged public executions, mainly in recreation areas including football stadiums.

Under the ultra-Islamic regime, the Taliban publicly stoned and lashed those who were found by their courts to have had sex outside marriage.

Nearly nine years since the ouster of their regime by the US-led invasion, the Taliban still metes out justice based on their harsh interpretation of Islamic laws in areas under their control.