GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban carried out a double public execution at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan on Thursday.

A crowd of thousands, including an AP journalist, witnessed the executions, which occurred in the Ali Lala area of Ghazni city.

The Taliban did not respond to requests for information about the people who were executed or their alleged crimes.

Local media reported that several courts and the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, had ordered their deaths in retribution for crimes they purportedly committed.

People crowded outside the venue, clambering to get in, and religious scholars pleaded with relatives of the victims to forgive the convicts, but they refused.

The executions started shortly before 1 p.m. There were 15 bullets fired, eight at one individual and seven at the other.

Ambulances took their bodies away afterwards.

Thursday’s killings are the third and fourth known public executions since the Taliban seized power in 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.

The Taliban regularly carried out public executions, floggings and stonings during their previous rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s.