Thursday, July 30, 1998 Published at 17:44 GMT 18:44 UK


World: South Asia

Taleban telly task force

Kabul's televisions are set for a sticky end

Taleban religious police in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have raided electronics shops to seize and smash televisions and video recorders in line with their belief that images of living beings are un-Islamic and corrupting.

"If the people do not improve themselves, we will launch a comprehensive operation to clear the whole city," he said.

The campaign follows a Taleban edict, giving people 15 days to surrender their televisions. The deadline has now passed.

The Taleban's Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice said the deadline was imposed because people continued to flout earlier bans on watching television.

But that did not stop more resourceful citizens, who secretly kept their sets and constructed makeshift satellite receivers from copper cooking pots or bicycle wheels.

In a country blighted by war and poverty correspondents say many Afghans are likely to continue surreptitious viewing of satellite channels and illegal Hindi videos as their only form of entertainment.

Meanwhile the ban has proved an unexpected boon for criminals, who have been raiding homes at night posing as religious police and making off with televisions.

The Taleban, who have an austere interpretation of Islam, took power in Kabul in 1996 and control two thirds of the country, where they have also outlawed other forms of entertainment such as music, cinema and photography.