KABUL -- Afghanistan has carried out its first execution since the fall of the Taliban regime, putting a notorious former military commander to death with a bullet to the head, officials said Tuesday.
The April 20 execution remained secret for a week until it was revealed in a scathing report by Amnesty International, which accused powerful politicians of silencing Abdullah Shah before he could expose their human rights violations.
Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said the Afghan leader signed Shah's death warrant reluctantly.
Karzai has commuted two prior death sentences, but was compelled by the heinous nature of the crime, Ludin said. Shah was convicted of killing one wife by pouring boiling water over her body and murdering his infant daughter by bashing her repeatedly against a wall.
