Kabul - Taliban fighters have publicly hanged a university student after accusing him of killing a senior intelligence officer.
The militia took Faizul Rehman, a fourth-year student at Kabul Polytechnic university, from his car as he travelled home to visit his family in the Chak district of Maidan Wardak province, about 60km west of Kabul.
Abdul Rehman Mangal, a spokesperson for the governor of Maidan Wardak, said: "They hanged him in front of [the] public. Local elders tried to mediate to release him, but they failed.
"They accused him of killing Mullah Mirwais, the head of their intelligence in the area," he said.
The Afghan interior ministry confirmed the execution and said they had launched an investigation "to arrest and punish the perpetrators of this criminal act".
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said they were investigating the case.
Since they were ousted in 2001, the Taliban have executed people they accuse of spying for foreign or Afghan forces and have staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have committed adultery or had sex outside marriage.