Taliban displays bodies of alleged kidnappers in Afghan city

Taliban authorities has displayed four bodies of alleged kidnappers, and hung one of them from a crane parked in a city square in the western Afghan city of Herat.

Taliban officials announced that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping earlier on Saturday and were killed by police.

“The aim of this action is to alert all criminals that they are not safe,” a Taliban commander said.

According to Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the edge of the square said, Taliban officials initially brought four bodies to the central square, then moved three of them to other parts of the city for public display.

Resident Mohammad Nazir said he had been shopping for food near Herat’s Mostofiat Square on Saturday when he heard a loudspeaker announcement calling for people’s attention.

“When I stepped forward, I saw they had brought a body in a pick-up truck, then they hung it up on a crane,” he said.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire.

He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers, and that the kidnappers were killed in crossfire.

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Kamila/Al-Jazeera