The Taliban strung up a dead man in a public square in Western Afghanistan after authorities claimed he had been executed by police.
The man was one of four killed by authorities after allegedly taking part in a kidnapping, the Associated Press reported.
Four bodies were brought to the town center in Herat, but Taliban officials decided to string up the dead men’s bodies in different places, said Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy in the Herat square.
Ziaulhaq Jalali, a local district police chief in Herat, said the four men were shot dead by Taliban security forces during a rescue mission to thwart the kidnapping. He added that a Taliban fighter and civilian has been wounded.
The public display comes just hours after the Taliban’s top cop, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, announced the country would be returning to Quran-era religious punishments like executions and limb amputations. During the Taliban’s previous stint, they famously held public executions in the country’s stadiums.
Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said this week that the Taliban will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public. AP Photo/Felipe Dana
Afghans and the world have been watching to see whether the Taluban will re-create their harsh rule of the late 1990s. Oliver Weiken/dpa/Sipa USAThough they have promised Afghans a kinder, gentler Taliban, the current leaders — many of whom like Turabi are veterans of their previous rule — have shown few signs of moderation.
The bloodshed came on the same day a roadside bomb ripped through Jalalabad, the capital of the country’s eastern Nangarhar province. One person was hurt. The restive region is known as a stronghold of ISIS-K, which is at odds with the Taliban. The group was responsible for a similar bombing in the region last week.
