ISLAMABAD (AP) — Twenty-seven people were lashed in public on Thursday in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as punishment for alleged adultery, theft, drug offenses and other crimes, according to a court official.

Afghanistan’s new authorities have implemented hard-line policies since they took over the country in August 2021 that have underlined their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

The country’s Supreme Court issued the final rulings after appeals. In a statement, the court said the lashings took place in the northern province of Parwan, with 18 men and nine women punished in all.

Abdul Rahim Rashid, an official with the court, said the men and women were each lashed between 25 to 39 times. An unspecified number of those punished also received two-year prison terms in Charakar, the provincial capital, he added.

The lashings were carried out before a “public gathering of locals and officials,” Rashid added.

Provincial officials and local residents attended the public punishments, during which officials spoke about the importance of Sharia law, added the court statement.

Thursday’s lashings come a day after the Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents returned to power last year.

The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top government spokesman. Some officials came from the capital Kabul.

The execution was met with international criticism. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life,” spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said.

In comments late Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. condemned the public execution. Price said the Taliban’s future relationship with Washington depended “largely on their actions when it comes to human rights.”

No foreign state has officially recognized the Taliban government that took over as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew last year. The Taliban formerly ruled Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion of 2001.

On Thursday, spokesman Mujahid rejected international criticisms of the Taliban government.

“Unfortunately, a number of countries and institutions still do not have a proper knowledge and understanding of Afghanistan,” he said.

Mujahid pointed out that capital punishment was practiced in many other countries including the United States.

A separate court statement said that earlier this week, three men convicted of theft were lashed in public in the eastern province of Paktika.

During the previous Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.

After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights. Instead, they have restricted rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade.

The former insurgents have struggled in their transition from warfare to governing amid an economic downturn and the international community’s withdrawal of aid.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban authorities on Wednesday executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents took over Afghanistan last year, a spokesman said.

The announcement underscored the intentions by Afghanistan’s new rulers to continue hard-line policies implemented since they took over the country in August 2021 and to stick to their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban government spokesman. Some officials came from the capital Kabul.

The decision to carry out the punishment was “made very carefully,” Mujahid said, following approval by three of the country’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The executed man, identified as Tajmir from Herat province, was convicted of killing another man five years ago and stealing his motorcycle and mobile phone. The victim was identified as Mustafa from neighboring Farah province. Many Afghan men use only one name.

Taliban security forces had arrested Tajmir after the victim’s family accused him of the crime, said a statement from Mujahid, the spokesman. The statement did not say when the arrest took place but said Tajmir had purportedly confessed to the killing. Mujahid added that Tajmir was shot three times by the victim’s father Wednesday with an assault rifle.

During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.

After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, in the final weeks of the U.S. and NATO forces’ pullout from the country after 20 years of war, the Taliban had initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights.

Instead, they have restricted rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade. They have also carried out public lashings across different provinces, punishing several men and women accused of theft, adultery or running away from home.

The former insurgents have struggled in their transition from warfare to governing amid an economic downturn and the international community’s withholding of official recognition.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan girls will be allowed to take their high school graduation exams this week, an official and documents from the Taliban government indicated Tuesday — even though they have been banned from classrooms since the former insurgents took over the country last year.

According to two documents from the Taliban ministry of education, obtained by The Associated Press, the decision applies to 31 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces where the winter school break starts in late December.

Ehsanullah Kitab, head of the Kabul education department, said the exams would take place on Wednesday. He provided no other details and it was not clear how many teenage girls would be able to take the exam.

One of the documents, from the Kabul education department, said the exams would last from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A second document, signed by Habibullah Agha, the education minister who took office in September, said the tests would be held in 31 Afghan provinces. The three excluded provinces — Kandahar, Helmand and Nimroz — have a different timetable for the school year and high school graduation exams typically take place there later.

“This is ridiculous,” said 18-year-old Najela from Kabul, giving only her first name for fear of reprisals. She would now be in twelfth grade and eligible for the exam. “We spent a whole year under tension and stress and haven’t read a single page of our textbooks.”

“How can we possibly take an exam after a year and a half that the Taliban have kept school doors closed,” she added.

The Taliban overran Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. Despite initially promising a more moderate rule and women’s and minority rights, they have restricted rights and freedoms and widely implemented their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

They have banned girls from middle school and high school, restricted women from most employment, and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks, gyms, and funfairs.

Women have not been denied access from universities under the Taliban and the implication of the latest development is that Afghan girls who obtain a high school diploma after Wednesday’s exam would be able to apply for universities.

A Kabul high school principal said she was informed that twelfth grade girls will have just one day to take exams in 14 subjects, with 10 questions from each subject. The principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said most girl students lacked textbooks.

“Giving an exam is meaningless,” she said.

The students and their female teachers will all have to wear the hijab, or headscarf, under the Taliban dress code for women, and cellphones are banned during the exam. Girls who cannot attend or who fail Wednesday’s exam would be allowed to retake the test in mid-March, after the winter vacation.

The Taliban treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan has come under heavy criticism. Earlier this month, a team of U.N. experts said it may amount to a crime against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, an allegation rejected by the Taliban.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A member of the militant Islamic State group has been arrested in last week’s shooting attack targeting the Pakistani Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, the spokesman of the Taliban government said.

The attack, in which shots were fired at the embassy from a nearby building, triggered anger in Pakistan, and increased tensions between the two South Asian neighbors.

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Kabul was walking across the lawn inside the embassy compound at the time of the attack. He was unharmed but one of his Pakistani guards was wounded.

The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province and a rival of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.

The Islamic State group said two of its fighters attacked “the renegade Pakistani ambassador and his guards” while they were inside the embassy’s yard. The statement gave no further details.

The chief spokesman for the Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced the arrest of a suspect in a tweet Monday.

Mujahid said the suspect is a foreign national and that the attack was organized jointly by IS and “rebels,” apparently a reference to anti-Taliban groups in Afghanistan.

“Some foreign circles are behind the attack and the aim was to create distrust between the two brotherly countries Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Mujahid wrote, without elaborating.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. They established their own administration, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.