The gruesome act took place just one day after a well-known Taliban official warned that harsh punishments like executions and amputations would be reinstated.

According to a local official, the men were killed in a gun battle after allegedly kidnapping a businessman and his son.

According to the Associated Press, a body was hung from a crane in the city center.

At least four bodies were brought to the square, according to a local shopkeeper, Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, and three more bodies were moved to different squares around the city to be displayed.

Local media reported that Herat’s deputy governor, Maulwai Shair Ahmad Emar, claimed that Taliban fighters had tracked down and killed the alleged kidnappers 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.

The Taliban have promised a more moderate form of government in Afghanistan since taking control on August 15.

However, there have been numerous reports of human rights violations all over the country.

As the ex-head of religious police for the Taliban, Taliban leader Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, now in charge of prisons, stated on Thursday, Afghanistan will resume the use of harsh punishments like execution, including amputation because it is “necessary for security.”

He told the Associated Press in an interview that these punishments may not be meted out in public like they were under Taliban rule in the 1990s.

However, he downplayed the outrage that had been generated by their previous public executions:

“No-one will tell us what our laws should be.”

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