Afghan Taliban publicly hang university student over 'spying'

Incident was widely condemned in Afghanistan with many saying the action refreshed memories of harsh Taliban rule

ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban on Saturday said they publicly hanged a university student for 'spying on one of their intelligence officials'.

Faiz ur Rehamn was a 4th year engineering student of the Kabul Polytechnic University, who a Taliban spokesperson claimed had killed Intelligence chief Dr Mirwais and another Taliban man in Maidan Wardak province.



Interior Ministry spokesperson Sediq Sediqqi confirmed the incident and said on his official Twitter account, "Taliban's continued brutality and heinous crimes against our innocent people will not be tolerated; justice will prevail."

The incident was widely condemned in Afghanistan with many saying the action has refreshed memories of the Taliban rule when people would be punished publicly for offenses.

A Taliban statement said Faiz ur Rehman was tried in a Taliban court where he “confessed the crime.” Further, Taliban claimed that the Afghan intelligence agency NDS had given a silence pistol to kill Mirwais and his colleague.

“Faiz ur Rehamn was a double agent and was also working for the Taliban. He would share information about the Afghan government with the Taliban,” a Taliban statement said.



Abdul Rehman Mangal, spokesperson for the governor Maidan Wardak was quoted by BBC Pashto as saying that the Taliban arrested the man when he was on his way to home on Thursday.

He added that the Taliban hanged the man on Friday in the presence of nearly 100 people. He said the student had no link with the murder of the Taliban official and was completely innocent.

He also said the Taliban intelligence official was killed during "internal fighting."