KABUL: The Taliban are said to have hung the dead bodies of four alleged kidnappers in public in the western city of Herat in an apparent warning.
This came a day after a Taliban official warned that extreme punishments such as executions and amputations would resume.
The men were killed in a gunbattle after allegedly seizing a businessman and his son, international media reported.
Reports said a body was hung from a crane in the city centre. Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, said that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.
The deputy governor for Herat, Maulwai Shair Ahmad Emar, was quoted by local media as saying that Taliban fighters had tracked the alleged kidnappers down and killed all of them in a firefight.
"We hanged their dead bodies on the Herat squares to be a warning to the other kidnappers," the official was quoted as saying.