The Taliban publicly executed an alleged murderer in front of a large crowd at a bazaar in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, according to a local news report on Saturday.
The Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN) agency reported that the public execution was carried out at the Sebaka bazaar in Chak district of Wardak Province. The man, identified as Omar from neighboring Saydabad district, was accused of killing a man in Chak district.
PAN reported that Taliban insurgents killed the alleged murderer with Kalashnikov rifles as hundreds of local residents watched.
The Chak district chief, Ismail Wafa, confirmed the incident to PAN and said Omar had recently returned from Iran to his village in Syedabad. However, he had no further information about the execution.
Muslim, the Syedabad district chief, told PAN that the Taliban had seized Omar in his district and transported him to Chak district, where he was killed at the bazaar.
An elder, who did not want to be named when interviewed by PAN, said the Taliban brought the man into the bazaar on Friday and shot him dead in presence of the slain man's family members. Omar's body was left on the ground, he added.
Public executions were a frequent event when the hardline Islamic Taliban regime governed Afghanistan until a NATO-led invasion in October 2001. Since then, there have been sporadic reports of public executions.