Villagers in the more remote parts of Afghanistan's mountainous north-east region, tucked up against the lawless border with Pakistan, have long ago adjusted to living alongside insurgents.
But the Taliban enforcers who started filing into their mosques two months ago to check that beard and trouser lengths met standards of religious propriety, and to hunt for government employees, still chilled the congregations.
The Taliban were shrouded from head to toe in black, barely any flesh showing, some also wearing sunglasses. "At Friday prayers the uniformed unit comes and stands in the last line, and then waits at the gate of the mosque to ask people questions like 'why is your beard short?', 'do you work for the government or national police?'," said Haj Sayed Ahmad, a 51-year-old teacher who fled to Kabul a week ago to escape the fallout of a battle between the insurgents and government forces.
"They have black face masks, and even their feet and hands are covered. You can't see anything at all," he added of the men, who also set up checkpoints to search travellers on the roads of the district in the much contested province of Nuristan.
The Taliban spoke in accents from outside the area, refugees said, and anyone who questioned the enforcers risked a dangerous assault.
"The uniformed group, when they stop people, they don't say much. If you try to make a longer conversation they will give you a beating that will nearly kill you," said Hussain Ali, 30, a lawyer. "We call them the 'vice and virtue police'." » | Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul | Tuesday, May 01, 2012
