The Taliban say they shot dead four suspected kidnappers and even hanged their bodies in a public square in the Afghan city of Herat, BBC News reports. Earlier, Taliban official Mullah Nooruddin Turabi said he would re-implement executions and amputations of hands in Afghanistan even if they were not carried out in public. "Cutting hands is indispensable for safety," said Turabi. To the Associated Press, a local shopkeeper named Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi said the four bodies were taken to the square, one was hung there, while the other three bodies were moved to another square for display. According to the Deputy Governor of Herat, Maulwai, the body was put on display to prevent further kidnappings. According to him, after learning of the kidnapping of a businessman and his son, the Taliban shot four of the perpetrators to death. However, the BBC has not been able to confirm the circumstances under which the people were killed. But a video that went viral showed a man being hanged with a caption across his chest: "Kidnappers will be punished like this." In fact, since taking power in Afghanistan in August, the Taliban had promised that they would form a lighter government than in the past. However, there are now many reports of human rights violations being committed. In August, Amnesty International said that Taliban fighters were behind the massacre of nine members of the persecuted Hazara minority. According to Amnesty Secretary General Agns Callamard, the "cold-blooded brutality" of the killings is "a reminder of the Taliban's past record, and a chilling indicator of what a Taliban government might bring."
