Pictures from the Afghan city of Herat are reminiscent of the dark chapter of the 1990s: the Taliban put corpses on public display. This is to deter criminals.
The militant Islamist Taliban have publicly exhibited the bodies of four men who are said to have kidnapped a trader and his son in the western Afghan city of Herat. Lieutenant Governor Maulaui Shir Ahmed Amar, appointed by the Taliban, said on Saturday that Taliban fighters had killed the men in combat and freed their prisoners. The men “were hung up so that no one dared to commit such crimes,” Amar told the German press agency. On recordings from Herat, onlookers could be seen filming a corpse with their cell phones, which is wrapped in chains and hung from a crane in the main square of the city.
During their rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban were known to punish crimes with public flogging, publicly stoning people, and amputating limbs. In 2001 her regime was overthrown by the US invasion. With the withdrawal of international troops, the Islamists took power again in Afghanistan in mid-August. After decades of war and conflict, the country is in need of international support. Many states want to make aid deliveries subject to conditions. Observers fear that, despite all hopes for a more moderate course, the Taliban will again rule with a hard hand.
International air traffic is taking off slowly
The Foreign Ministry appointed by the Taliban called on Sunday to resume air traffic to and from Afghanistan. The airport in Kabul is “fully operational,” said a spokesman. All commercial flights into the country were suspended after the Islamists came to power.
Before the withdrawal of their last troops, the US armed forces had rendered military and civil aircraft and the airport’s radar system unusable. The first international flight took off from Kabul airport in early September after technicians from Qatar and Turkey put it back into operation. The main aim of this was to enable the remaining foreign nationals and local employees to be flown out.
More bombings since seizure of power
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, at least one person died when an explosive device exploded in a Taliban convoy. Seven other people were injured in the Saturday morning incident, local media and sources reported. A Taliban spokesman confirmed an explosion in the provincial capital Jalalabad to the German press agency. Local media, citing eyewitnesses, reported that a roadside bomb had detonated as the convoy crossed the area.
In Nangarhar, once the stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia, the number of murders and bombings has increased since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August. IS has claimed some of the attacks for itself. The Taliban and IS have fought against each other in the past.
After the withdrawal of international troops with hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, Afghanistan is going through a humanitarian crisis. The managing director of UN refugee aid, Peter Ruhenstroth-Bauer, therefore called on the German population for donations. For its operations, the UN refugee aid – the German partner of the UN refugee agency UNHCR – needs 410 million US dollars, but only 42 percent of the needs are covered, said Ruhenstroth-Bauer to the editorial network Germany (RND). It’s not just about emergency aid, but also about projects for girls and about education.
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