A man accused of murder in western Afghanistan was killed by the Taliban on Wednesday, in the first publicly confirmed execution since the group took over the country last year, a Taliban official said on Wednesday.
The execution in western Farah province was by a man accused of stabbing another man to death in 2017, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, and was attended by senior officials of the group.
The execution was carried out by the father of the victim, who shot the man three times, Mujahid said in a later statement.
The case was investigated by three courts and authorised by the group's supreme spiritual leader, who is based in southern Kandahar province, said Mujahid. More than a dozen senior Taliban officials attended the execution including the acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and acting deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, as well as the country's chief justice, acting foreign minister and acting education minister.
It comes after the country's supreme court announced public lashings of men and women accused of offences such as robbery and adultery in several provinces in recent weeks, a possible return to practices common in its hardline rule in the 1990s.
A UN human rights office spokesman said last month that the Taliban had to halt public floggings in Afghanistan.
According to a court statement, the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader met judges in November and said they should carry out punishments consistent with sharia law.
Under the Taliban's rule of 1996 -- 2001, public lashings and executions by stoning took place.
Such punishments were later condemned by the foreign-backed Afghan governments that followed, though the death penalty remained legal in Afghanistan.