GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Feb 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Two people were due to be publicly executed in a football stadium in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, provincial officials said, in the third and fourth death penalties carried out since the Taliban returned to power.

The Ghazni province information and culture department said in a public notice that the execution was a qisas punishment -- equating to "an eye-for-an-eye" -- but did not initially provide details on the prisoners or their crimes.

Although public executions were common during the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, they have only carried out two others since surging back to power in August 2021. Both were for the crime of murder.

There have been regular public floggings for other crimes, however, including theft, adultery and alcohol consumption.

Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada last year ordered judges to fully implement all aspects of sharia -- including qisas punishment.

The last execution was carried out in June 2023, when a convicted murderer was shot dead in the grounds of a mosque in Laghman province in front of some 2,000 people.