KABUL: Taliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat executed four alleged kidnappers and publicly hung their bodies from a crane in a gruesome display that signaled the hard-line movement’s return to some of its brutal tactics of the past.
Sher Ahmad Ammar, deputy governor of Herat, said the men had kidnapped a local businessman and his son and intended to take them out of the city, when they were seen by patrols that had set up checkpoints around the city.
An exchange of gunfire ensued in which all four were killed, while one Taliban soldier was wounded. “Their bodies were brought to the main square and hung up in the city as a lesson for other kidnappers,” he said. The two kidnapping victims were released unharmed, he said.
Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said later that Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers, and that the kidnappers were killed in crossfire.
Herat resident Mohammad Nazir said he had been shopping for food near the city’s Mostofiat Square when he heard a loudspeaker announcement calling for people’s attention. “When I stepped forward, I saw they had brought a body in a pickup truck, then they hung it up on a crane,” he said.
Footage of the bloodstained corpse, swinging on the crane was widely shared on social media, showing a note pinned to the man’s chest saying “This is the punishment for kidnapping”.
No other bodies were visible but social media posts said others were hung up in other parts of the city. A video showed crowds gathering around the crane and peering up at the body as some men chanted.
In an interview this week, senior Taliban figure Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said the group would restore punishments like amputations and executions to deter criminals.
“Everyone criticised us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said in the interview. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.”
Despite international condemnation, the Taliban have said they will continue to impose swift and severe punishments on lawbreakers to stop crimes like robbery, murder and kidnapping that had become widespread in Afghanistan.
Washington, which condemned Turabi’s reported comments on punishments, has said any potential recognition of the Taliban-led government in Kabul, would depend on respect for human rights.
