The Taliban hung four dead bodies in a public square in western Afghanistan, according to local witnesses, in a sign that the group is returning to some of its harsh punishments of the past.
Several residents of Herat, identified as Mohammad Nazir and Wazir Ahmad, said they saw the Taliban displaying the bodies in the city’s public square. Ahmad told The Associated Press that three of the bodies were then moved to other parts of the city for public display.
An Associated Press video showed crowds gathering around the crane and peering up at one of the bodies as some men chanted.
Since taking over Afghanistan last month after U.S. troops were pulled out, some high-ranking members of the Taliban, designated by several U.S. intelligence agencies as a terrorist group, said they have changed their ways since the Taliban previously ruled the country between 1996 and 2001.
However, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, who now heads the so-called Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, suggested that public executions and other strict punishments, including hand amputations, will be meted out.
In recent days, human rights groups such as Amnesty International have sounded the alarm.
The U.S. State Department, in response to Turabi’s comments, said the United States wouldn’t accept the Taliban if it carries out harsh punishments.
“We condemn in the strongest terms reports of reinstating amputations and executions of Afghans,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters last week, adding that amputations and executions “would constitute clear gross abuses of human rights, and we stand firm with the international community to hold perpetrators ... accountable.”