In last two days, 14 have been executed at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. They include criminals, rapists and terrorists. The official statement from Palace yesterday said in the wake of a shocking increase in child rape cases across the country, the President has approved execution of those sentenced to death.

However, the six others executed on Wednesday, despite international criticism, were mostly terrorists involved in attacks on civilians and Afghan National Security Forces. The European Union (EU) strongly criticized asking the government to stop all death sentences and to reintroduce a moratorium on executions. ‘The European Union is opposed to the use of capital punishment in all cases and under any circumstances. The death penalty is cruel and inhumane,’ the EU delegation has said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Afghan Government, ending a four-year virtual moratorium on the use of the death penalty, should stop further executions. The watchdog says the weakness of the Afghan legal system and the routine failure of courts to meet international fair trial standards make Afghanistan’s use of the death penalty especially troubling.

Executions have been infrequent since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. A single execution was carried out in 2004, followed by a three-year unofficial moratorium that ended in 2007 with the execution by firing squad of 15 people at Pul-i-Charkhi prison in Kabul.

At that time, the government announced that it intended to continue executing those on death row, and further executions were held in 2008, sparking condemnation from the United Nations and the European Union. Since then, the government has not carried out the death penalty, with the exception of the execution in June 2011 of two men convicted of participating in a February 2011 attack on a bank in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan that resulted in 38 deaths.

Meanwhile, some local newspapers have published report from anonymous resources that about more than 200 prisoners are on death row. Judges have issued death sentence for them but yet is not approved by President Karzai.

HRW further says Afghanistan’s justice system remains weak, compromised, and fails to meet with international fair trial standards in spite of more than 10 years of donor assistance. It relies heavily on confessions, including some obtained through torture. Use of physical evidence is rudimentary.

The independence and impartiality of judges is often undermined, especially in high-profile cases. Effective defense representation is often absent. Studies by the UN and others have shown prosecutors and judges to be among the most corrupt officials in Afghanistan. The Afghan justice system is also opaque, with information about court dates not easily available.

Ironically, Taliban have asked the United Nations, International Committee of Red Cross and human rights organizations to stop the Afghan government carrying the executions. The UN has repeatedly asked Taliban to stop suicide bombing and targeting civilians in the conflict, and now the thug leadership of the terrorists are asking world community to stop the capital punishment of their comrades. How about stop slaughtering innocent civilians and suicide attacks?

Frequently, individuals within and out of the government accused it of showing mercy on those who have committed major crimes. Abdurrab Rasoul Sayyaf in the anniversary of former President, Mr. Burhanuddin Rabbani said that if the government had hanged four suicide bombers and left corpses unburied, no one might have dared to take arms against the government.

We are not arguing for death penalty, but Afghanistan as a country in a state of war with terrorist groups who have not the slightest concern for human life has yet long way to make the conditions for abolition of capital punishment, by strengthening rule of law and writ of state.