Under Sharia ‘Qisas’ Law, Taliban Has 13-Year-Old Survivor Execute Family’s Killer in Packed Stadium: UN condemnation
Mass Murder in Khost Province Leads to Public Retributive Execution.
In January 2025, a horrifying incident shook the village of Abukhana in the Alishir district of Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province.
A man named Mangal, alongside several accomplices, launched a brutal raid on a local family’s home. The attackers opened fire, gunning down 13 family members in cold blood. The sole survivor of the entire massacre was a 13-year-old boy.
Following an investigation by the Taliban administration, Mangal and his co-conspirators were captured. With the formal backing of the Taliban’s Supreme Court and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, the perpetrator was sentenced to death under the Sharia law principle of Qisas (retributive justice, or “an eye for an eye”).
The execution was carried out on December 2, 2025, inside a stadium in Khost in front of a massive crowd of over 80,000 people. Taliban authorities had heavily promoted the event beforehand, issuing official notices to encourage public attendance.
While the surviving family members technically held the legal option to grant a pardon, the young boy refused and demanded retribution. Consequently, authorities placed a firearm into the 13-year-old’s hands. The teenager carried out the execution himself, shooting Mangal three times. As the shots were fired, the stadium crowd cheered in approval, erupting into chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
International Backlash and Fallout
The public spectacle drew swift and severe international condemnation. UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett, alongside various global human rights bodies, denounced the execution as “inhumane, cruel, and a clear violation of international law,” calling on the regime to immediately abolish these brutal enforcement methods.
The Taliban, however, flatly rejected the United Nations’ censure, dismissing the international outcry as an unwarranted interference in their domestic affairs.
Sources & Coverage: Amu TV, South China Morning Post (SCMP), Associated Press (AP News), New York Post, The Independent (UK), and France 24.
