Taleban hang four in public

Afghanistan's Taleban rulers follow a purist form of Islam

Four men convicted of setting off bombs in the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, have been publicly hanged from steel cranes next to the city's presidential palace.

A total of 13 people were arrested for a series of bomb blasts last November in Kabul.

They (aid workers) should give our religion dignity and not show disrespect by teaching against it

Taleban's ministry for the promotion of virtue

The nine others were sentenced to life. The Taleban radio (Voice of Shariat) said all of them had pleaded guilty.

The executions came as 24 aid workers - including eight foreigners - arrested in Afghanistan face a possible death penalty for promoting Christianity.

The November bomb blasts outside government buildings and a hotel left one person dead and dozens injured.

Afghan women have to comply with a strict dress code

Most punishments in Kabul are carried out in the sports stadium, our correspondent says, but the Taleban have used the main square to hang saboteurs.

It is also the place where they executed Afghanistan's former President Najibullah and his brother after capturing the city in 1996.

Police redirected traffic and kept onlookers at a distance while the latest executions took place.

When they untied the bodies and left, a crowd of men and boys surged forward to see the corpses.

Diplomatic missions

Bomb attacks have become common in Kabul, although most carry tiny charges and cause little damage.

The Taleban usually blame the explosions on their opponents in the civil war, alleging that they want to create insecurity in the capital.

Taleban crime and punishment

Murder: Execution

Thieves: Limbs amputated

Adulterers: Stoned or lashed to death

The opposition always deny the charges.

Among citizens of Kabul, theories as to who carries out the attacks are legion, ranging from saboteurs from hostile foreign countries to disgruntled Taleban.

The Taleban Bakhtar news agency called the bombers "the puppets of foreign masters".

The aid workers, who have been in prison since last Sunday, include two Americans, four Germans and two Australians. Also imprisoned were 16 Afghan staff.

Religious police

Officials from the US embassy in neighbouring Pakistan, and the German and Australian embassies hope to travel to Kabul on Thursday to press for the release of the workers from German-based Shelter Now International.

In January, the Taleban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, decreed that anyone convicted of trying to persuade an Afghan Muslim to convert would face the death penalty.

Shelter Now's director Esteban Witzmann told the BBC that any Christian material was only for personal use.

Our correspondent says that diplomats and aid agencies are trying to keep the temperature down, acutely aware of the severity of their people's situation.

The aid workers are being held by the Taleban's religious police - the most feared organisation within the Taleban.

Even other Taleban ministers do not have any influence over them.

'Good health'

And while some diplomats may feel that they have good relations with some of the more liberal Taleban officials, that cuts no ice with the religious police.

The Taleban display items allegedly confiscated from the aid agency's offices

Shelter Now describes itself as a non-governmental organisation involved in food distribution, water supplies and helping street children.

The Taleban, however, says the group's activities are a front for propagating Christianity.

Salim Haqqani, an official in the Taleban's ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, said the detained aid workers are well-fed and in good health.

"We want humanitarian organisations to work here, but they should work here honestly," he said.

"They should give our religion dignity and not show disrespect by teaching against it."

The Taleban militia, which controls 95% of the country, follows a purist form of Islam and takes a hard line towards minority religions in Afghanistan.

The regime provoked a storm of international criticism earlier this year for destroying two ancient Buddhist monuments, which it said were idolatrous, and for proposing members of Afghanistan's tiny Hindu community wear yellow stars for identification.