KEY POINTS

  • The child was allegedly murdered in the northern province of Takhar
  • Taliban said executions and amputations will return to Afghanistan
  • Taliban had promised to spare citizen who worked with previous government 

Taliban’s promise of inclusion and tolerance fell flat when an Afghan media organisation published a video of the bloodied body of a boy who was killed because his father was suspected to be part of the Afghan Resistance Forces.

Panjshir Observer posted the disturbing video which they said was taken in the Takhar province. The brutal attack on the child is one of the latest displays of a Taliban crackdown on anyone who opposes the new government and its interpretation of the Islamic law.

"Child executed in Takhar province by Taliban fighters after his father is suspected of being in the Resistance. #WarCrimes #Afghanistan," the Observer said in the tweet.

After capturing Kabul on Aug. 15, the Taliban pledged that citizens who worked with the former government and foreign forces have nothing to fear, Wall Street Journal reported. They called themselves the new Taliban.

Earlier this month, the Taliban formed an all-male government and promised tolerance. However, one of the Taliban founders, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, said in an interview with Associated Press that they will resume execution and amputation of hands as punishments for crimes, signaling that the new Taliban is a lot like the old one.

"Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments," Turabi told Associated Press. "No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran."

In a harsh interpretation of the Islamic law, the Taliban executed murderers with a single shot to their head and amputated limbs of those convicted of thefts in full public display in the 1990s. However, the Taliban said it will not carry out executions and amputation in public this time.

The next day, however, the Taliban shot dead four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies from a crane parked in the public squares of Herat.

The displays were carried out to deter future cases of abduction, said Herat deputy governor Herat Maulwai Shair. Graphic images and videos of the bodies were shared on social media, BBC reported. One man suspended from the crane had a sign on his chest that read, "Abductors will be punished like this."

Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi thanked the world for pledges of more than $1 billion in aid
Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi thanked the world for pledges of more than $1 billion in aid AFP / Hoshang Hashimi