Taliban Police Seize 100 Minority Men

Police from the Taliban Islamic regime raided a minority neighborhood in Kabul and rounded up more than 100 men, officers and witnesses said. The police told residents the men were suspected of gambling and smoking hashish, which are banned under the Taliban’s strict version of Islamic law. But Abdul Razak, chief of police for the Afghan capital, later said his agents had evidence the men were loyal to the anti-Taliban opposition led by Ahmed Shah Masoud, Afghanistan’s former defense chief. The Taliban Islamic army, which captured Kabul last September, is battling a northern-based coalition, consisting mostly of members of Afghanistan’s minority groups. Most Taliban supporters are from the majority Pushtun ethnic group.