Herat: The Taliban publicly flogged and then executed a pregnant Afghan widow by firing three shots into her head for alleged adultery, police said on Monday.
Bibi Sanubar, 35, was kept in captivity for three days before she was shot dead in a public trial on Sunday by a local Taliban commander in the Qadis district of the rural western province Badghis.
The Taliban accused Sanubar of having an "illicit affair" that left her pregnant. She was first punished with 200 lashes in public, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi said.
The widow was given dozens of lashes before being shot dead on Sunday in the remote Qades district, held by the militants in northwestern Badghis province, said Abdul Jabar who serves as a senior officer in the province.
"It happened before the public...despite that no one has complained, the government will take its own measures about the incident," Jabar told Reuters by phone from Badghis.
The unidentified man who had the alleged affair with the woman had escaped, he said.
When in power from 1996 untill 2001, the radical Taliban staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have sex outside marriage.
A spokesman for the Taliban, who lead the insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign forces, said he was not aware of the incident and could not comment on it.
If confirmed, Sunday's execution would be the second of a woman by the Taliban since their ouster from power nine years ago. A woman was previously executed for alleged spying for foreign forces.
The judiciary in neighbouring Iran last month suspended a sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery after an international outcry over the case.
