On Tuesday, November 15, the Taliban arrested a 12-year-old boy for murder, residents in Kapisa province tell Zan Times.
The killing occurred in the village of Kalota, in Police District 2 of Kohistan district. A resident of the district explains to Zan Times that the boy was transferring a hunting rifle from his home to that of his uncle when the weapon accidently went off. A bullet hit the young boy’s aunt in the chest, fatally killing her.
“The dead woman’s name is Forozan and she was about 35 years old,” another source confirms to Zan Times. The Taliban arrested her nephew on the charge of murder, the source says. (Both residents asked not to be identified.)
The Taliban in Kapisa confirmed that the child had been arrested, saying that they are interrogating him to determine the cause and motive of the murder. The Taliban often use torture to obtain “confessions.”
Such harsh measures are increasingly common as Afghanistan’s judicial system has been systematically dismantled by the Taliban after they returned to power.
If that wasn’t enough, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced in a tweet on November 13 that Mullah Hibatullah, the supreme leader of the Taliban, held a meeting with the judges, in which he asked them to “carefully investigate cases of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists” and implement “hudud and qisas” [sharia punishments, that could include public executions for murder or the amputation of a hand for thieves] as punishment. The Taliban leader called his order a command of sharia, which is “obligatory” and must be implemented.
