Taliban holds mass flogging for 63 people at sport stadium - with offences ranging from 'fleeing from home' to 'disrespect'

The Taliban held a horror mass flogging for 63 people at a sport stadium for offences ranging from 'fleeing from home' to 'disrespect'.

The disturbing punishment event was held on Tuesday in Sar-e-Pul, northern Afghanistan and saw 48 men and 15 women lashed between 15 to 39 times.

In addition to the sickening physical abuse, some victims were locally reported to have also received prison sentences lasting between six months and five years for their crimes.

According to Voice of America, the group was the largest known since 2021 to receive public floggings in a Taliban event.

Local media reported that locals shockingly approved of the lashings, with one resident telling Tolo News: 'Young people will learn a lesson from the crimes they committed, and this will result in a decrease in crime and criminal activities'.

It also added that according to Sar-e-Pul officials, the individuals who received the harsh and brutal punishment were arrested by security forces for committing crimes including 'fleeing from home, armed robbery, adultery, sodomy, and disrespect'.  

Some 48 men and 15 women were publicly flogged by the Taliban between 15 to 39 times in on Tuesday in Sar-e-Pul, northern Afghanistan (file photo)

According to Voice of America, the group was the largest known since 2021 to receive public floggings in a Taliban event (file photo)

The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced it will soon start stoning women to death in public (file photo)

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has attempted to maintain relations with the Taliban, condemned the event on Wednesday, along with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR).

'We are deeply disturbed by the widespread, continued use of corporal punishment in Afghanistan,' UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said in a statement.

'Corporal punishment is a clear violation of international human rights law.

'Afghanistan is party to both the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,' the statement continued. 

'Under international law, all people have the right to be treated with respect for their inherent human dignity and equality.

'We again urge the de facto authorities to immediately cease all forms of corporal punishment. 

'Furthermore, we call on the de facto authorities [the Taliban] to ensure full respect for due process and fair trial rights, in particular access to legal representation, for anyone facing criminal charges.'

The use of a sport stadium to host the chilling event is not an unheard of for the Taliban, after the terrorist organisation convicted a man of murder and allowed the brother of the alleged victim to kill the convicted man before the eyes of a stadium full of spectators in February.

'The man was shot five times with a rifle by the victim's brother, according to an anonymous witness,' Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported at the time. 

A month before, nine men were publicly flogged up to 39 times each by the Taliban in front of a packed football stadium.

The Taliban viciously flogged nine men during a public show trial in a packed football stadium

Under Sharia Law, the men arrested on unspecified charges were lashed between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and locals

The draconian punishments were handed out in the Ahmad Shahi Stadium in Kandahar by the Islamist regime

The draconian punishments were handed out in the Ahmad Shahi Stadium in Kandahar by the Islamist regime.

Under Sharia Law, the men arrested on unspecified charges were lashed between 35 and 39 times in front of officials, religious clerics, elders and locals.

Hundreds gathered to watch the brutal sentences being administered, with some even climbing up trees for a good view of the proceedings. 

The recent flogging comes just three months after the Taliban announced it will soon start stoning women to death in public.

Addressing Western officials in a voice message broadcast on state TV, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the radical group's Supreme Leader, called the Western human rights defenders 'representatives of the devil'.

'You say it's a violation of women's rights when we stone them to death. But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery,' he told the West in his harshest comments since taking over Afghanistan in 2021.

'We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public,' he announced.

'These are all against your democracy but we will continue doing it.

'We both say we defend human rights – we do it as God's representative and you as the devil's,' he added.

The Taliban, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule, began carrying out severe punishments in public shortly after coming to power.

The punishments are similar to those during their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the collapse of the internationally supported government and the withdrawal of all US and UK-led Western troops after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.