Taliban execute pregnant woman in Afghanistan 
 
 HERAT, Afghanistan — 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 before being shot, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi told AFP. 
 
 "She was shot in the head in public while she was still pregnant," Sayeedi said. 
 
 Sayeedi said a local Taliban commander, Mohammad Yousuf, carried out the execution before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control. 
 
 The execution is a grim reminder of the Taliban's harsh six-year rule, from 1996 to 2001 in Afghanistan. The radical Islamists staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have committed adultery or sex outside marriage. 
 
 The then-Taliban government would also chop off the hands and feet of those accused of theft and robbery. 
 
 But a Taliban spokesman denied Monday that the militia was responsible for Sanubar's death. 
 
 "We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province," said Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, calling the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government. 
 
 The Taliban is not a unified national movement and small groups operate shadow government structures autonomously in pockets of the insurgent south. 
 
 The man who allegedly had an affair with Sanubar was not punished. 
 
 Head of Badghis provincial council Mohammad Nasir Nazaari confirmed the execution and said the Qadis district was entirely under Taliban control. 
 
 The deputy head of the religious council for western Afghanistan, Mohammad Kabaabiani, said the execution ran counter to Islamic principles. 
 
 Head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, Abdul Qadir Rahimi, condemned the killing. 
 
 "Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice," said Rahimi. 
 
 Since their ouster in 2001, the hardline Taliban militants have executed many people they accused of spying for foreign forces, including at least one woman who was shot dead in Kandahar. 
 
 The insurgents last year publicly executed a young couple accused of eloping in Nimroz province, by firing squad in front of a mosque. 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Afghan widow given more than 200 lashes before being shot dead by Taliban for adultery was PREGNANT 
 
 
 
 By Mail Foreign Service 
 
 
 
 Last updated at 4:51 PM on 10th August 2010 
 
 The Afghan woman publicly executed by Taliban militants for alleged adultery was pregnant, it emerged today. 
 
 The victim, 48-year-old Bibi Sanubar, was flogged up to 200 times before being shot on Sunday - in the head and chest - in the remote Qades district. Her alleged lover managed to escape. 
 
 Abdul Jabbar Khan, security chief in the Taliban-controlled area, said the killing was ordered after the woman allegedly killed her newborn child to conceal illicit sex. 
 
 
 
 Execution: Afghan women praying at a shrine. Taliban militants killed the widow for allegedly committing adultery 
 
 The international coalition in the country issued a slightly different version of the incident, saying Sanubar was a still-pregnant widow who was killed for alleged adultery. 
 
 Elders in the village of Quds contacted Taliban commanders after the woman's pregnancy became known. A local official said: 'She had an illegal relationship with a man who was not her husband.' 
 
 But he added: ' Her husband died many years before. Then she became pregnant so, according to Islam, we gave her a very strong punishment. It was more than 200 lashes. Then we shot her.' 
 
 Afghan police said the body was later dumped in an area under government control. 
 
 
 
 Khan told The Times newspaper: 'This was not the way she should have been punished. She should have been arrested and we would have had proof that she had an illegal affair. Then she should come to court and face justice.' 
 
 'Justice', Afghan style, is still relatively harsh. Rape victims, for example, are prosecuted for having sex outside of wedlock. 
 
 Under Afghan law Sanubar would have been jailed for up to three years if found guilty of adultery, but many women are then returned to their families to face traditional punishments, including so-called honour killings. 
 
 Sanubar's execution comes days after an Aghan woman was flown to the U.S. to have reconstructive surgery after the Taliban cut off her nose and ears - after she tried to escape from an abusive husband. 
 
 
 
 Qades is an isolated area held by Taliban militants in north-western Badghis province. 
 
 When in power from 1996 until 2001, the radical Taliban staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have sex outside marriage. 
 
 
 
 Sunday's execution would be the second of a woman by the Taliban since they were ousted 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. 
 
 
 

– The Taliban publicly flogged a pregnant Afghan widow some 200 times before shooting her to death for having sex. Her lover escaped. Bibi Sanubar, 35, "was shot in the head in public while she was still pregnant," deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi told Agence France Presse. Officials found out about the execution because her body was dumped in an area under government control. This was not the way she should have been punished," said a local Afghan official. "She should have been arrested and we would have had proof that she had an illegal affair," he told the Daily Mail. "Then she should come to court and face justice." Sanubar could have faced up to three years in prison under "conventional" Afghan law. The Taliban frequently stoned or lashed people for sex outside of marriage during their harsh rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.