FIRST CONFIRMED STONING IN AFGHANISTAN SINCE 2001

AP: Taliban stone couple for adultery

When extremists ruled Afghanistan, public killings were common.

Taliban militants [MISLEADING REDUNDANCY!] in northern Afghanistan stoned a young couple to death for adultery, which a rights group said was the first confirmed use of the punishment here since the hardline Islamist regime was ousted in 2001.

The Taliban-ordered killing comes at a time when international rights groups have raised worries that attempts to negotiate with the Taliban to bring peace to Afghanistan could mean a step backward for human rights in the country. When the Islamist extremists ruled Afghanistan, women were not allowed to leave their houses without a male guardian, and public killings for violations of their harsh interpretation of the Koran were common.

This weekend's stoning appeared to arise from an affair between a married man and a single woman in Kunduz province's Dasht-e-Archi district.

The woman, Sadiqa, was 20 years old and engaged to another man, said the Kunduz provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raza Yaqoubi. Her lover, 28-year-old Qayum, left his wife to run away with her, and the two had holed up in a friend's house five days ago, said district government head, Mohammad Ayub Aqyar.

They were discovered by Taliban operatives on Sunday and stoned to death in front a crowd of about 150 men, Aqyar said.

First the woman was brought out and stoned, then the man a half an hour later, Aqyar said. He decried the punishment, which he said was ordered by two local Taliban commanders.

A spokesman for the provincial government also condemned the act.

"It is against all human rights and international conventions," said spokesman Mabubullah Sayedi. "There was no court. It was cruel."

Amnesty International said it was the first confirmed stoning in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban rule in the 2001 US-led invasion.

BBC:

A man and a woman who allegedly had an adulterous affair have been stoned and killed in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.

The punishment happened in a crowded bazaar on Sunday in the Taliban-controlled village of Mullah Quli.

The Taliban have not commented on the public killing, but it was confirmed by local officials and witnesses.

This month the Taliban also reportedly flogged and killed a pregnant widow in western Baghdis province.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Waheed Omar, said if the incident was confirmed it would be condemned in the strongest terms by the government.

"Even in Islam this [stoning] has to be done through proper judicial systems," he said.

THERE ARE LIBERALS IN THIS COUNTRY WHO STILL THINK WE SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH THE TALIBAN.

AND THAT ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE.

BOTH POSITIONS ARE WRONG - AND MAKE US LESS SAFE.

APPEASEMENT ALWAYS DOES.