Taliban executes pregnant woman on charges of adultery

The Taliban executed a pregnant woman on charges of adultery in western Afghanistan, an official said on Monday.

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", Jabar Saleh, the deputy provincial police chief, said.

Sanawbar was kept in prison for three days before being publicly executed, he said, adding, "She was first flogged 200 times and then was shot in her head three times."

Mullah Mohammad Yousif, a Taliban commander in the district, sentenced the woman to death and then personally carried out the punishment on Sunday, Saleh said.

While they were in power from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban staged public executions, mainly in recreational places, 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 militant group still metes out justice based on its harsh interpretation of Islamic laws in the areas where they currently hold sway.

Officials in the western region said that the area where Sunday's execution took place was completely controlled by the militants.

The militants in the recent years have also killed dozens of Afghan people, including women, after accusing them of spying for the Western-backed Afghan government or the international forces.

Among those executed was a seven-year-old boy, who was killed by suspected militants on charges of spying for the Afghan government in the southern province of Helmand in June.