Taliban hang dead body in Afghan city’s main square.

The Taliban executed a man for kidnapping in public without any trial.

By Edward Era Barbacena

Kabul - A young Taliban fighter patrols the streets of Kabul on the back of a pick-up truck.

Oliver Weiken / Avalon

The Taliban strung up a dead man in a public square in Western Afghanistan after authorities claimed he had been executed by police.

The man was one of four killed by authorities after allegedly taking part in a kidnapping, the Associated Press reported.

Four bodies were brought to the town center in Herat, but Taliban officials decided to string up the dead men’s bodies in different places, said Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy in the Herat square.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a local district police chief in Herat, said the four men were shot dead by Taliban security forces during a rescue mission to thwart the kidnapping. He added that a Taliban fighter and civilian has been wounded.

The public display comes just hours after the Taliban’s top cop, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, announced the country would be returning to Quran-era religious punishments like executions and limb amputations. During the Taliban’s previous stint, they famously held public executions in the country’s stadiums