On January 15, thousands of people watched in Kabul...

On January 15, thousands of people watched in Kabul as a Taliban tank knocked over a 15-foot brick wall, sending it crashing down onto a 60-year-old man, Shuma Khan, convicted of sodomy for the attack on a 12-year-old boy in a hotel in Maidan Shahr, some 18 miles outside of Kabul. Initially it was believed that Khan had died and his body was loaded onto a truck and taken to the hospital, where doctors said the man was actually unconscious and suffering serious head injuries. "My whole body aches with pain, but thank God I have returned from the jaws of death," Khan said. "I was wrongfully convicted for sodomy. And God has proven my innocence." The Taliban say homosexuality is a capital offense and punishable by the wall-toppling method. If the convicted person survives, the sentence is commuted, according to Taliban law. Several people have been sentenced to death by this means, but only three have survived. Before Khan's execution, 6 thieves had their right hand and left foot amputated in the Kabul stadium by doctors who first gave them an anesthetic. The left foot of a seventh man, Mohammed Yaqub, was also cut off for theft. Yaqub was a repeat offender who previously had his right hand amputated for theft. Before his left foot was cut off, Taliban authorities forced him to walk around the stadium showing the limb that previously had been amputated.