Afghanistan’s Mass Killer Executed

KABUL, 28 April 2004 — Afghanistan has executed a notorious commander convicted of murdering dozens of people, including four of his wives, in the first use of the death penalty since the Taliban fell, officials said yesterday. The execution by a bullet through the head was personally approved by President Hamid Karzai. The president had initially asked the Supreme Court to commute the sentence to life in prison despite confessions incriminating Abdullah Shah in murders officials described as exceptionally brutal.