Saudi Arabia has tried to change its brutal image in the last decade. (Photo source- Reuters)
Digital Desk, New Delhi. In the famous Al-Adl Square of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where once the necks of criminals were cut and streams of blood flowed after Friday prayers, now children play in the shade of palm trees.
Saudi Arabia has held these executions behind closed doors in an effort to change its brutal image over the past decade.
Now this square used to be called "Chop Chop Square" by foreigners, but now there are fountains flowing and cafes full of people. This year Saudi has broken its old record, 340 people have been sentenced to death, but now it is not done openly but behind the walls of prisons.
Hanging was done every Friday after Namaz
Earlier, executions took place every week after Friday prayers in Al-Adl Square, which is next to the headquarters of the religious police. Shopkeepers and local people still remember those scenes when large crowds used to gather. Rafiq, a shopkeeper, says that the police used to put up barricades and people used to gather to watch the beheadings.
He says, "It was scary, but gradually it became a habit. At the time of beheading, people used to close their eyes and shout 'Allahu Akbar'."
There are still signs of cleaning
There are still big drains in the square, over which iron grills are installed, so that cleaning after hanging is easy. Similar scenes were seen in the square outside every big mosque in the entire country. Public executions were stopped in late 2013 without any reason.
Dua Dhani, a researcher at the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, says that after that the executions started taking place inside the prisons.
In 2013, the government approved firing squads, but now the method of execution is not clear. The officials did not give any answer on this.
Trying to adapt to the ways of the world
Shifting executions to prisons is part of Saudi Arabia's transformation to reduce its dependence on oil to attract foreign tourists and investors.
Religious police are no longer as strict as before, women roam without niqab or hijab, and alcohol restrictions have loosened for high-earning non-Muslims.
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