(Kabul) The Taliban on Saturday hanged a body from a crane parked in a public square in Afghanistan.
The Taliban first brought four bodies to the central plaza in Herat, then moved three to other parts of the city for public viewing, said Wazir Ahmed Chediki, who runs a pharmacy near the city.
Taliban officials said all four were arrested earlier Saturday in connection with the abduction and were killed by police, Wazir Ahmed Chediki said.
Ziaul Haq Jalali, the Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, later said Taliban operatives had rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after the shooting. He said a Taliban militant and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers and they were killed in the shooting.
The Associated Press video shows a crowd gathering around the crane. Passers-by look at the body as if men are shouting.
“The purpose of this operation is to warn that not all criminals are safe,” the Taliban commander, who did not identify himself in a camera interview in the square, told the Associated Press.
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