Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders of the Taliban, announced that harsh punishments, including executions, will be implemented again. During an interview with the Associated Press (AP) on September 22, Turabi announced that the Taliban would once again carry out executions and amputations of hands. Not in public, of course, because they’ve “changed” as they like to say.

Turabi rebuffs the criticisms against the Taliban’s previous efforts of enforcing Sharia law, which included executions in stadiums and mosque-grounds. He told AP, even though everyone criticizes their policy for the punishments, they “have never said anything about their laws and their punishments.”

“No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam, and we will make our laws on the Quran,” he added.

During the Taliban’s previous rule of Afghanistan, Turabi was the Justice Minister and the head of the notorious Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He is now in charge of Afghanistan’s prisons, and to an extent, the prisoners.

Turabi insisted that cutting-off appendages has deterrent effects. “Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” he said. Turabi lost his leg and an eye during the 1980s during a fight with Soviet troops. For some reason, Turabi did not see the irony of lost appendages and deterrence.

Despite the Taliban’s promise that they will be better this time, remnants of their practice during their previous reign are slowly coming back. Taliban fighters are now using public shaming to punish men for petty theft and other minor crimes.

The Taliban is doing its best to keep up with the appearance of being better than their previous reign. “We are changed from the past,” Turabi said to a female Associated Press interviewer. In 1996, when the Taliban took power, Turabi’s first action was to bawl at a female journalist, commanding her to leave the room.