Taliban prisons chief says the group will resume executions and amputations as punishment

One of the founders of the Taliban has said that the group will resume executions and amputations as punishment.

Mullah Nooruddin Turabi warned the world against interfering in the plans, which come just weeks after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Western troops.

Mr Turabi, who was chief enforcer of the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled the country in the late 1990s, said: "Everyone criticised us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments.

"No one will tell us what our laws should be.

"We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran."

Previously, convicted murderers were shot in the head by the victim's family who also had the choice of accepting money and allowing the offender to live.

Convicted thieves had their hand amputated and highway robbers had a hand and a foot amputated.

Mr Turabi told the Associated Press that amputating hands "is very necessary for security", adding that during the Taliban's previous rule, such harsh punishments helped bring "complete safety" to the country.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Friday that the punishments "would constitute clear gross abuses of human rights".

"We stand firm with the international community to hold perpetrators of these, of any such abuses, accountable," he added.

"We are watching very closely, and not just listening to the announcements that come out but watching very closely as the Taliban conducts itself."

Taliban fighters have already revived an old punishment of public humiliation for men accused of small thefts.

At least twice in the past week men in Kabul have reportedly been put on the back of a pickup truck, their hands tied, and driven around the city.

But despite the revival of the old punishments, Mr Turabi insisted: "We are changed from the past."

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Previously, the judiciary was heavily-influenced by hardline Islamic clerics but Mr Turabi said judges, including women, would adjudicate future cases.

He also said the Taliban would allow technology such as mobile phones, TV, photos and video "because this is the necessity of the people and we are serious about it."