the Taliban murdered four men and hung their bodies in squares

The Taliban hung the bodies of four suspected kidnappers from cranes after killing them in a shooting on Saturday in Herat, western Afghanistan, a senior regime official reported.

Deputy Governor of Herat Province Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir said the men’s bodies were displayed in various public places the same day they were murdered. to give a lesson” that kidnapping will not be tolerated.

Images posted on social media showed bloody bodies in the back of a van while a crane lifted a man.

Crowds of people watched as the armed Taliban fighters gathered around the vehicle.

Another video showed a man hanging from a crane in a large roundabout in Herat with a sign on his chest that read: “The kidnappers will be punished this way “.

“A lesson”

The exhibition in various city squares is the most notorious public punishment since the Taliban came to power last month and this is a sign that diehard Islamists will embrace formidable measures in accordance with its previous government from 1996 to 2001.

Brutal punishments such as hanging, amputations, stoning and flogging, these were common sanctions during the first Taliban government in 1996-2001.

During this period, radical Islamists hung in public, almost daily, the bodies of criminals in Kabul or in a province of the country.

Muhajir said security forces were informed that a businessman and his son were kidnapped in the city on Saturday morning.

Police blocked exits from the city and the Taliban detained the men at a checkpoint, where “there was a shooting,” he said.

“After a few minutes of clash, one of our mujahedin was injured and the four kidnappers were killed,” Muhajir continued in a recorded statement sent to AFP.

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

Muhajir said that before Saturday’s incident, there had been other kidnappings in the city and the Taliban had saved a child.

One kidnapper died and three others were arrested, he said, although in another case the Taliban “failed and the kidnappers were able to make money.”

“We were very saddened because while we are in Herat our people are being kidnapped,” Muhajir said.

“To teach other kidnappers a lesson not to kidnap or harass anyone, we hang them in town squares and make it clear to everyone that anyone who steals or kidnaps or takes action against our people will be punished.” , he concluded.

Executions and amputations

Mullah Nooruddin Turabi – one of the founders of the Taliban and chiefly responsible for the strict application and interpretation of Islamic law in his previous government, said this week The Associated Press that the conservative movement will happen again hand executions and amputations, although they are not public.

Since the Taliban seized the capital, Kabul, on August 15 and took control of the country, amid the withdrawal of American troops, the Afghans and the international community have been waiting to see if they will reiterate their rule with heavy hands. from the previous organize.

The group’s leaders remain clinging to a deeply conservative worldview, even though they have embraced technological changes like video and cellphones.

Source: AFP

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