The description alone contains an error in every word: a 13-year-old boy executes by himself the man who killed 13 members of his family, because the relatives refused the possibility of reconciliation — a sentence carried out in a stadium packed with tens of thousands of people.

Yet this is the reality of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The country’s Supreme Court ruled that the perpetrator, named Mangal, was guilty of slaughtering 13 members of the teenager’s family, including children and three women. He had been convicted along with others for invading a home in January 2025 in Khost province and shooting the members of the family to death.

The Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence delivered at first instance, and it was approved by Afghanistan’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, according to the Daily Mail.

The Taliban have imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law, which includes the reinstatement of public executions carried out under Qisas — retribution — a form of “an eye for an eye.”

The boy executed the murderer of his family with three gunshots in front of 80,000 spectators crowded into a stadium in the city of Khost. The crowd chanted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”). Authorities had invited the public to watch the execution in official announcements.

The boy’s relatives refused the Taliban’s offer to pardon the convicted criminal.

Public executions, a common sight

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have carried out at least 12 public executions.

The previous one took place in October in Badghis, where a man was executed in front of a crowd as well as officials. He had murdered a married couple (the woman was eight months pregnant) and was executed by relatives of the victims.

In that case, three courts had issued the same verdict — the death penalty to be carried out by a relative — which was also confirmed by the Taliban’s supreme leader. The relatives would not even consider amnesty or reconciliation.

In April, four men were publicly executed on the same day in three different cities by relatives of their victims.

Although the UN’s special envoy calls for the executions to stop, residents view them positively because “no one will dare kill anyone in the future.”

For more “minor” offenses, such as theft, adultery, and alcohol consumption, flogging is imposed — also carried out publicly. In one instance, at least 63 people, including 14 women, were flogged for crimes such as sodomy, theft, and “immoral” relations.

Law and order are central elements of the Taliban’s hardline ideology, notes the Daily Mail, which reminds readers that in its annual report published in April, Amnesty International ranks Afghanistan among countries where death penalties were imposed after trials that “did not meet international standards of fair trial.”

The similarities between the current situation and the draconian policies imposed by the Taliban during their 1996–2001 rule are more than obvious, especially regarding the harsh “virtue and vice” laws.

And while the West officially sees Afghanistan as a country where human rights are being strangled day by day, the unofficial “policy” of influencers is different: they travel to a country of natural beauty, still untouched by mass tourism, as if there were no barbaric regime.

The Taliban’s “logic” is entirely different.

In a chilling audio message, the Taliban’s supreme leader said: “We will whip women, we will stone them to death publicly for their crimes. You may say their rights are violated if we stone them publicly because they are adulteresses and that violates your democratic principles. But I represent Allah and you represent Satan.”