The Taliban on Saturday killed four alleged kidnappers in a shootout in Afghanistan’s Herat city, hung their bodies from cranes and displayed them in public, AFP reported.
The men had allegedly abducted a businessman and his son.
Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir, the governor of Herat province, said the display of bodies was meant to convey that the Taliban would not tolerate kidnappings.
“In order to be a lesson for other kidnappers not to kidnap or harass anyone, we hung them in the squares of the city and made this clear to everyone that anyone who steals or abducts or does any action against our people will be punished,” Mujahir said.
A video from Herat showed three bodies suspended from cranes moving along a road. Scroll.in has not independently verified the authenticity of the clip.
In an interview to AP last week, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders of the Taliban, had said that the group will again hand out brutal punishments like amputation of hands and executions.
“Everyone criticised us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” he had said. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.”
Meanwhile, the United States said it would it would hold the Taliban accountable for these abuses, AP reported.
The Taliban had seized Kabul in mid-August, compelling thousands of Afghans fearful of its rule to make desperate attempts to leave the country.
The group announced an interim government on September 7, mostly comprising its old guard.
Afghanistan’s new prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, is on the sanctions list of the United Nations. Sarajuddin Haqqani, the country’s interior minister, is the chief of militant group Haqqani Network. He is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted list for terrorism.
The international community has called for a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict. At a virtual summit on September 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa had emphasised on the need to hold dialogue to ensure peace and order in Afghanistan.
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