The Hindu, April 2, 2007

Taliban hang 3 alleged informers in Southern Afghanistan

Lifeless body of one of the men hung from the town's main street for three hours before villagers

Kandahar: The Taliban on Sunday executed three men accused of spying for NATO and Government forces in southern Afghanistan, a local militant commander and villager said.

Separately, a suicide car bomber blew himself up on Sunday near an Afghan army convoy in eastern Laghman province killing five civilians, the police said.

The three men from the Southern province of Helmand were arrested and allegedly "confessed to their crime" of being spies for NATO and the Afghan Government, said Mullah Abdul Qasim, a Taliban commander in the north of Helmand.

Qasim said that two Taliban commanders were killed as a result of information from these three men.

A villager from Musa Qala, Namatllah Khan, said the lifeless body of one of the men hung from the town's main street for three hours before villagers took him down and buried the corpse.

"The Taliban told the other people of Musa Qala that whoever gives information to the Government and our enemies will be punished in the same way as this informer," Khan said.

Another man was hanged from a tree near a bridge by the town of Gereshk, and the third was executed in between Gereshk and Musa Qala, said Neem Shah, a resident of Gereshk, where the two bodies were later taken. -AP

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