Afghans revive religious police

Manawi said the department would be headed by a well-known former Mujahideen (holy warrior) figure, Mohammad Mustafa, who has a degree in religious affairs, and would function under the orders of the Supreme Court. Mustafa belongs to the Northern Alliance.

‘‘Letters have been dispatched to all districts and provinces stating that this department works on the basis of a mandate which is to invite people for prayer and other religious rituals and to ban them from unlawful acts,’’ Manawi said. ‘‘Accountability employees are trying to persuade people not to pursue vice and unlawful acts,’’ he said.

Manawi stressed that offenders would face gentler punishments than under the Taliban, which stoned adulterers to death, lashed those who drank alcohol, chopped off the hands of thieves and executed murderers.

The Taliban also lashed women who refused to wear the mandatory all-enveloping burqa, or showed any part of their bodies while outdoors, and beat men who trimmed their beards.

The new punishments would depend on the crime, but include fines, imprisonment and some lashings, Manawi said. He said the Supreme Court would have the final say in the administering of punishments, which would be not carried out in public, as they were under the Taliban.

Officials of the Department recently confiscated US Army rations containing pork on sale in some shops in Kabul and outside a key American base at Bagram, to the North of the city, witnesses said.

The rations are intended for US and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan in pursuit of Taliban remnants and fighters of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. Muslims are forbidden to eat pork.

Manawi said the Department had a staff of nearly 300, including 50 women who would visit schools to make sure that they observed Islamic codes.