The Taliban hanged a dead body from a crane in the main square of Herat city in western Afghanistan, a witness said on Saturday, in a gruesome display that signalled a return to some of the Taliban’s methods of the past.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the side of the square, told The Associated Press that four bodies were brought to the main square and three bodies were moved to other parts of the city for public display.

Seddiqi said the Taliban announced in the square that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping and were killed by police.