RFE/RL spoke to shopkeeper Charin Singh, who is believed to be the only Sikh remaining in the Afghan city of Jalalabad and the wider Nangharhar Province. He says attacks by militants have driven his family and other members of the Sikh community abroad.
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
November 24, 2022
The Taliban has begun imposing strict Islamic punishments across Afghanistan by publicly flogging dozens of men and women in several provinces for crimes such as theft and adultery.
Last week, the Taliban’s supreme court said that more than two dozen people were publicly flogged for “committing adultery, theft, or eloping from home” in the southern province of Kandahar, the central province of Bamiyan, and the northern Takhar Province.
The public punishments came days after the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the Afghan judiciary to implement Hudood as part of the Taliban’s overall drive to enforce the strict implementation of Islamic Shari’a law, which the extremist group has long touted as its main objective.
He told Afghan judges that they should issue rulings based on Hudood and Qisass after thoroughly probing the cases of “thieves, kidnappers, and seditionists” because “this is a ruling of Islamic Shari’a law and my order.”
Under the Taliban’s interpretation of Shari’a law, Muslim rulers must implement penalties of flogging for drinking, stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft, crucifixion for robbery, and death for rebellion. These offenses are considered a violation of the boundaries set by God, or Hudood, and thus require public corporal punishments. Qisas are penalties of retributive justice that allow a victim’s relatives to kill or forgive his murderer.
The imposition of these Islamic punishments now is widely considered a sign that the Taliban seeks to recreate the brutal rule it employed during its first stint in power from 1996-2001. The former Taliban regime was infamous for carrying out public executions, amputations, and floggings at stadiums as Hudood and Qisas punishments.
Many Afghans are raising alarm over the Taliban’s new push to impose Hudood penalties.
Former lawmakers, religious scholars, and legal experts point out that the Taliban-led government lacks the legitimacy to impose such sweeping legal changes. They say the internationally isolated government has not met the legal and political principles required to introduce and enforce its strict interpretation of Islamic law, which they say deprives Afghans of their fundamental rights.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has mirrored the previous regime by imposing sweeping restrictions on women by depriving them of education, jobs, mobility, and any visible societal role. While suspending adherence to the existing Afghan Constitution and laws, the extremist group has fired professional judges, prosecutors, and lawyers. It has also packed the judiciary with loyal clerics.
“The major problem is how these punishments will be implemented,” said Shukria Barakzai, an outspoken former lawmaker.
She said the Taliban is merely exploiting the name of Shari’a law and has failed in its 15 months of rule to meet the fundamental criteria required for crafting a political system rooted in Islamic principles.
“You need a transparent and accountable political system in which the leadership is answerable to the people,” she told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
Barakzai, an exiled Taliban critic, said the Taliban’s justice system is rife with nepotism and frequently violates Islamic teachings by forcing people to confess through torture.
“Under what principles are they flogging and stoning people in public?” she asked. “They lack experienced and honest judges.”
Salahuddin Saeedi, an Afghan religious scholar, agreed.
“This is just a propaganda stunt because the Taliban lacks the capacity to implement complete justice outlined in Islam,” he told Radio Azadi.
Saeedi said Hudood can only be implemented under stringent conditions under Islamic law, and that the Taliban has failed to meet those conditions.
“The Taliban government lacks the legitimacy to implement Hudood,” he said.
Afghanistan’s now-defunct constitution, introduced under the previous government, required all of the country’s laws to be compliant with Islamic injunctions. Almost all Afghans are practicing Muslims.
Mir Abdul Wahid Sadaat, an Afghan legal expert, said the Taliban’s Hudood punishments violate Shari’a law because they violate the spirit of Afghan lawmaking.
“The rights of the people of Afghanistan are the primary target of these Taliban punishments,” he told Radio Azadi, adding their reintroduction undermines the international human rights laws and conventions that Kabul adhered to in the past.
Even sympathizers find it challenging to defend the Taliban’s obsession with Hudood punishments.
Hatef Mukhtar, a political commentator, often defends Taliban actions on Afghan media. He told Radio Azadi that the Taliban needs to focus on securing domestic legitimacy and international recognition before implementing Hudood.
“It is not important to flog people,” he said, adding that the emphasis should be on gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the world and ending the Taliban government’s international isolation.
Related
BBC: Afghans are giving their hungry children medicines to sedate them – others have sold their daughters and organs to survive. In the second winter since the Taliban took over and foreign funds were frozen, millions are a step away from famine. “Our children keep crying, and they don’t sleep. We have no food,” Abdul Wahab said. “So we go to the pharmacy, get tablets and give them to our children so that they feel drowsy.” Click here to read more (external link).
Xinhua: Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health received 125 of 180 ambulances contracted with Uzbekistan on Wednesday, Sharafat Zaman, the ministry’s spokesman, said Thursday. “The ambulances, worth 6,051,000 U.S. dollars, have been handed over to the Ministry of Public Health to improve public health services in the capital and provinces of the country,” Zaman told Xinhua. Click here to read more (external link).
Khalilzad
Pakistan Observer: Khalilzad told TRT World this week that while the [Taliban] Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was in his opinion making some serious mistakes, the only way to solve the issues was for all people in Afghanistan to broadly reach an agreement on a formula. Click here to read more (external link).
The Guardian (UK): The review finds the sheer scale of the aid resources funnelled through central state institutions was distorting. The Afghan state spent approximately $11bn each year, but raised only $2.5bn of its own resources, the report finds. Echoing previous studies it suggests it would have taken 35 years for the state to become self funding, leaving the Afghan state locked into an open-ended dependence on external aid. Click here to read more (external link).
Munir
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
November 24, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday nominated the former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the country’s main intelligence agency, as head of the powerful military amid deepening political turmoil in the country.
Officials said Sharif chaired a meeting of his cabinet to pick General Asim Munir from a list of six senior generals to replace General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, set to retire next week, as the new chief of army staff.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif announced the decision in a post-meeting statement, saying it has already been sent to President Arif Alvi for his mandatory approval.
Munir will take command of Pakistan’s nuclear-armed military from Bajwa on Nov. 29 at a ceremony at the general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
As well as heading the ISI, Munir has commanded Pakistani troops in areas bordering Afghanistan and arch-rival India.
The nomination of the new military chief comes amid an intensified debate over the even deepening interference of the institution in political affairs.
Bajwa’s leadership, in particular, has exposed the powerful military to severe public criticism lately, led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The 70-year-old politician alleges Sharif and Bajwa colluded with the United States to orchestrate the toppling of his government in April through a parliamentary no-confidence vote. The cricket-star-turned populist deposed leader has not offered any evidence to substantiate his claims.
However, Khan has lately toned down his anti-Bajwa rhetoric, saying that even if the general had not been involved in his removal he could still have saved his government.
On Wednesday, Bajwa formally rejected Khan’s allegations in his last nationally televised address to families of fallen soldiers at the Pakistan military headquarters.
“A fake and false narrative was concocted to create a state of hysteria in the country,” stated the 62-year-old general.
But Bajwa admitted his institution had been meddling in national politics for decades, occasionally exposing it to public criticism.
“I believe the major reason has been the military’s interference in politics for the past 70 years, which is unconstitutional,” the outgoing general said. “Therefore, in February last year the military decided after a lot of deliberation that it would never again interfere in any political matter in future.”
Bajwa did not, however, explain what prompted the military to disengage from politics, and critics swiftly questioned his claims.
Pakistan has experienced four military coups against elected governments since gaining independence in 1947, leading to more than three decades of dictatorial rule.
Bajwa became army chief in 2016 for a mandated three-year term and was given an extension for three years in 2019 by then-Prime Minister Khan.
“I would take Bajwa’s plea for the Army to get out of politics with many grains of salt,” said Michael Kugelman, the director of South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, when asked for comments on claims by the incumbent military chief.
“The institution has been so entrenched in Pakistan’s political fabric for so long, that it would be well-nigh impossible to engineer such a sharp shift,” Kugelman said in written comments to VOA.
Pakistani politicians have long accused the military of orchestrating the removal of elected governments that do not fall into line with the powerful institution, particularly when it comes to making foreign and security policies or questioning the military’s commercial interests.
Khan remains the most popular leader in Pakistan and his popularity has skyrocketed since his removal, with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party sweeping national and provincial by-elections in recent weeks.
Since his removal from office, he has been leading massive protest rallies across the country, with tens of thousands of party supporters attending them.
Khan is pressing Sharif to dissolve his coalition government and announce early general elections in the country. The government has rejected the demand, saying elections will be held only after it completes its constitutionally mandated term by next August.
The deposed prime minister has also accused a senior ISI general along with Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah of plotting a shooting attack on his rally earlier this month that left him wounded in the leg and killed one of his supporters. The government and ISI reject the allegations.
On Saturday, Khan plans to lead tens of thousands of supporters in Rawalpindi to push for his demand.
Related
8am: Sources talking to Hasht-e Subh said that around 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 24, armed men attacked the Taliban outpost in the Chaharbagh Firuzeh area, in the Anjil district of Herat province. Sources added that the conflict between the two sides lasted less than 10 minutes, as a result of which four Taliban forces have been killed and three others are wounded. So far, no group has claimed responsibility and the Taliban has also not provided detail. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Sellers of mobile phone SIM cards in Uruzgan are forbidden from selling the cards to women. Officials of the communication and information technology department in Uruzgan said that until the department creates a special SIM card sales section for women, nobody is allowed to sell SIM cards to women. Click here to read more (external link).