Taliban Hangs Bodies Of Four Suspected Kidnappers

• Graphic images posted to social media showed bloody bodies on the back of a pick-up truck while a crane hoisted one man up.

The Taliban hung the bodies of four kidnappers from cranes after killing them during a shootout in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat on Saturday, a senior official said.

Herat province’s deputy governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir said the men’s corpses were displayed in various public areas on the same day as the killings to teach a “lesson” that kidnapping will not be tolerated.

Graphic images posted to social media showed bloody bodies on the back of a pick-up truck while a crane hoisted one man up.

A crowd of people looked on as armed Taliban fighters gathered around the vehicle.

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Another video showed a man suspended from a crane at a major roundabout in Herat with a sign on his chest reading: “Abductors will be punished like this”.

The display across several squares in the city is the most high-profile public punishment since the Taliban swept to power last month, and is a sign the Islamist hardliners will adopt fearsome measures silimiar to their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

Muhajir said security forces were informed a businessman and his son had been abducted in the city on Saturday morning.

Police shut down the roads out of the city and the Taliban stopped the men at a checkpoint, where “an exchange of fire happened”, he said.

“As a result of a few minutes of fighting, one of our Mujahideen was wounded and all four kidnappers were killed,” Muhajir said in a recorded statement sent to AFP.

“We are the Islamic Emirate. No one should harm our nation. No one should kidnap,” he said in the video clip.

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