An Afghan man who helped mutilate his young daughter-in-law after she tried to flee her marriage has been arrested for abetting the crime.

The father-in-law, named Suliman, is being held in an Afghanistan jail, according to Women for Afghan Women, and has confessed to holding a gun to the young girl’s head while her nose and ears were cut off.

Ayesha, the young woman, is safely in the United States where she is undergoing a series of reconstructive surgeries.

Police are still searching for her husband and her brother-in-law, who performed the mutilation.

Once known only as “Bibi,” Ayesha’s story has become an example of the brutality of the Taliban and also the resilience of a young woman.

Considered by many Muslims to be a cult of Islam, the Taleban consists of a bunch of ruthless morans who think they are practising the purest form of Islam.

South Korean Christians who endured six weeks as hostages of the Taliban in Afghanistan spent their first day at home yesterday, reuniting with loved ones, getting medical checks and praying together.

South Korean missionary groups said they would pull out of Afghanistan to comply with a deal Seoul struck with Taliban insurgents for the release of 19 Christian volunteers held for almost six weeks.

About 20 South Korean Evangelical Christians face death after being captured by Taleban rebels in war-torn Afghanistan, where it is suspected they were preaching Christianity.

The Taleban said the dead man, Ghulam Nabi, had given the US information which led to an air strike in which a senior Taleban commander died.

Officials say the Taliban militia nets tens of millions by forcing farmers to plant poppies and taxing the harvest, driving the country’s skyrocketing opium production to fund the fight against what they consider an even greater evil — U.S. and NATO troops.

The Taleban's fight against opium production in Afghanistan was the "most effective" drug control policy of modern times, research suggests.

KABUL (AFP) - Suspected Taliban have threatened to cut off the nose and ears of men who shave their beards or anyone caught listening to music in a district of southeast Afghanistan

Almost two years after they were defeated, the Taliban leadership is recruiting thousands of extremists popularly called 'Sarbaz' - those who care nothing for their own lives - to fight the government of Mohd Karzai and the US-led forces in Afghanistan, reports here said.

Reuters, Apr. 28, 2003

Carlotta Gall The New York Times