The Taliban hung a body from a crane in the main square of Herat city in western Afghanistan, witnesses said on Saturday.
Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the side of the square, told AP that four bodies were brought to the main square.
One was hung there and the other three moved to other parts of the city for public display.
The Taliban announced in the square that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping and were killed by police, Mr Seddiqi said.
Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said that after an exchange of gunfire, Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers.
He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers but “the four [kidnappers] were killed in crossfire.”
The Taliban will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, said Nooruddin Turabi, a founder of the hardline movement.
He was a chief enforcer of the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Sharia when they previously ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, a Taliban official said a roadside bomb hit a Taliban car in the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, wounding at least one person.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif said the person wounded in the attack is a municipal worker.
