A convicted murderer has become the first person executed in public since the Afghan Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021, confirming apprehensions that the group would eventually return to the same hardline interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence that made them international pariahs two decades ago. Since Taliban supreme leader’s order last month for courts to begin issuing punishments such as public executions, stoning, flogging and amputation of limbs, several cases of flogging and…