Six shaven Afghans have noses and ears cut off.greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Troll-free Private Saloon : One Thread |
Yahoo.com Dec 4, 2001Six Shaven Afghans Have Noses, Ears Cut Off
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen waylaid six men in eastern Afghanistan and cut off their noses and ears, apparently for having shaved off their beards, an Afghan news service said on Tuesday.
The bandits stopped and searched a bus on Monday at Tangi Abresham on the highway from the capital Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad and ordered out all men who had shaved their beards, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.
It said the noses and ears of six men -- all Afghans -- were cut off to punish them for shaving their beards in defiance of formerly ruling Taliban movement's order to all Afghan Muslims to grow long beards.
The six were taken to hospital in Jalalabad, AIP said. There was no immediate comment from hospital authorities.
On November 19, four journalists, two of them from Reuters, were killed when unknown gunmen ambushed their convoy at Tangi Abresham, some 55 miles east of Kabul.
AIP said several vehicles were looted in Tangi Abresham on Sunday and Monday and quoted drivers as saying they had seen seven bodies lying in the area.
The radical Taliban movement has lost control of most of Afghanistan in the past month after being battered by U.S.-led military strikes to punish it for sheltering Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden and his al Qaeda militant groups are Washington's prime suspects behind the September 11 hijack plane attacks in New York and Washington.
-- (lars@indy.net), December 04, 2001
Better wear those burqas a bit longer, babes.
-- (lars@indy.net), December 04, 2001.