HERAT – Taliban authorities in the western Afghan city here killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others, said a local government official yesterday.
Deputy Governor Sher Ahmad Ammar said the suspects had kidnapped a local businessman and his son, and intended to take them out of the city, when they were spotted by patrols that have set up citywide checkpoints.
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,” said Ammar.
The two kidnapping victims were released unharmed, he said.
Resident Mohammad Nazir said he was shopping for food near 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, and then, they hung it up on a crane.”
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 the other remains were hung up in other parts of Herat.
In an interview with the Associated Press published this week, senior Taliban figure Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said the group will restore punishments like amputations and executions to deter criminals.
Despite international condemnation, the Taliban said it will continue to impose swift and severe punishments on lawbreakers to stop crimes like robbery, murder and kidnapping that have become widespread in Afghanistan.
Washington, which condemned Turabi’s reported comments, has said any potential recognition of the Taliban-led government in Kabul, which replaced the Western-backed administration that collapsed last month, will depend on respect for human rights.
According to the official Bakhtar news agency, eight kidnappers were arrested in a separate incident in the southwestern province of Uruzgan. – Reuters, September 26, 2021
