Herat
The Taliban are said to have have hung the dead bodies of four alleged kidnappers in public in the western city of Herat in an apparent warning.
The gruesome display came a day after a notorious Taliban official warned that extreme punishments such as executions and amputations would resume.
The men were killed in a gun battle after allegedly seizing a businessman and his son, a local official said. News agency AP was told a body was hung from a crane in the city centre.
Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, told the agency that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.
The deputy governor for Herat, Maulwai Shair Ahmad Emar, was quoted by local media as saying that Taliban fighters had tracked the alleged kidnappers down and killed all of them in a firefight.
“We hanged their dead bodies on the Herat squares to be a warning to the other kidnappers,” the official was quoted as saying.
The BBC has not independently confirmed the circumstances under which the men were killed.
However, graphic images shared on social media appeared to show bloody bodies on the back of a pick-up truck with a crane hoisting one man up.
Another video showed a man suspended from a crane with a sign on his chest reading: “Abductors will be punished like this.”—Agencies
