Bodies hang from cranes as Taliban restore public executions

Afghanistan regresses as the Taliban's strict interpretation of Sharia law returns

As the Taliban regime continues to consolidate its regime following their full takeover last month, images of people being hanged from cranes have been circulated online. As Afghan society returns to Sharia law, Taliban authorities were photographed having killed four alleged kidnappers, before dangling their bodies from cranes in the western city of Herat.

Incredibly disturbing footage on social media shows the dead bodies of at least four men, bloodied and hanging from cranes in the city’s main square as hundreds gathered to witness. As reported by The Guardian, it is believed that a note reading “Whoever kidnaps others, will end up like this,” was pinned to the chest of one of the bodies.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said members of the militant group had rescued a father and son who had been abducted by the supposed kidnappers after a firefight. He went on to say that a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers and that the four alleged individuals were "killed in the crossfire”. Despite Mullah Nooruddin Turabi - the chief enforcer of the Taliban’s Islamic laws when they last ruled Afghanistan in the ‘90s - telling AP News that such punishments would not necessarily be carried out in public as they were previously, it seems that this is very much is the case.

This isn't the only promise/intimation of change that the new regime has reneged on, as not long after they insisted there would not be any discrimination against women under new leaders, there were soon reports of women being killed for not wearing burqas and even burned alive for bad cooking.

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• Taliban hides female students behind curtain as Afghan universities return