The Taliban have taken a few days to recover one of their macabre traditions: that of displaying bodies hanging from cranes and bulldozers to give some kind of lesson or warning to the population. These images that seemed to have been left behind in time have been seen again this week in Afghanistan . Two dead men hanging from excavators to send a message that leaves no doubt to the population about who is in charge there.
These images come from the town of Herat, in the northwest of the country. It is precisely the city where Spain had a military base when it was part of NATO’s international peacekeeping mission. Well, terror has returned in full from the hand of the Taliban rulers. Bodies hanging from cranes reappear.
Of course, at least, as it has transpired, this time at least it is not a public execution. The regime of terror has not reached such a high point, but they have limited themselves to taking advantage of a supposedly foreign execution to send their message to the population. The truth is that, according to local governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir , the men hanged were two criminals who were already dead when they were tied to these bulldozers. It would be about two individuals who were caught trying to rob a house and who were killed by the owner of the farm. Of course, the theft was never carried out.
The Taliban took advantage of this episode to hang these two bodies as an explicit announcement to the population. Mullah Noruddin Turabbi, in charge of prisons in the new Taliban regime, has defended this kind of justice recently: amputations for stealing “are necessary for security.”
International legitimacy
The Taliban, for their part, continue to make efforts to achieve international legitimacy and break an isolation that threatens to further deteriorate the country’s ailing economy. No nation has so far recognized the new regime that took over Afghanistan nearly two months ago. An emissary from the UK was meeting with two Taliban leaders this week.
According to the British, this diplomatic mission only aimed to ensure that women and minorities can safeguard at least part of their rights in the new Islamist regime. In Kunduz province, in the north of the country, some schools have allowed girls to return to class. But it is a small advance that has only occurred in that region. Nothing to do with the particular freedom that existed in the country until the return of the Taliban, a freedom that although full of asterisks, was an oasis compared to the terror regime now imposed in Afghanistan.
