Taliban stone woman to death over charges of adultery in Afghanistan

An official reported that the Taliban, on Thursday stoned a woman to death and whipped a man on charges of adultery in Afghanistan’s north-eastern Badakhshan province.

The incident happened in Wardooj district, Zufnoon Natiq, head of the women’s affairs department in Badakhshan, said.

It was also reported that over eighth women have been killed by the Taliban for alleged moral crimes in the past 12 months.

There were few details as the district is under the control of the Taliban.

However, Natiq said that this was already the eighth case of a woman killed by the Taliban in the past 12 months for alleged “moral crimes”.

Almost a month ago, Taliban militants shot and killed two women in Badakhshan on allegations of adultery.

Similar cases have been increasingly reported from across the country.

In January, Taliban militants publicly flogged six people in central Afghanistan on allegations of robbery and adultery.

“This is a big concern for us,” Hussain Moin, a monitoring and investigation coordinator at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, told dpa.

The government is often unable to investigate such extrajudicial punishments as they take place in insecure areas, Moin said.