THE new Taliban Islamic government in Afghanistan said yesterday no Islamic funeral service could be held for the executed former president Najibullah.
An announcement on the official Kabul Radio, monitored in Islamabad, said a "Namaz-i-Janaza (funeral prayer service) for Najibullah cannot be held because he was a communist and murderer of innocent Afghans".
The Taliban militia executed Najibullah, his brother Shapur and two other aides on Friday immediately after capturing Kabul from the ousted government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The four men were dragged from a United Nations compound where they had sheltered under UN protection since Najibullah was ousted in a palace coup in April 1992.
Islamic mujahideen guerrillas subsequently took power from the collapsed former communist government after 14 years of civil war.
The bodies of Najibullah and Shahpur were delivered anonymously to a hospital.
Officials of the International committee of the Red Cross in Kabul said yesterday Najibullah's family had contacted them.
"We hope for a humanitarian solution," one official said.
A large Islamic funeral prayer meeting for the former president was held on Saturday in the southwestern Pakistani town of Quetta, where speakers condemned his execution.
Iran yesterday accused the US of meddling in Afghanistan's internal affairs, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
It quoted Iran's parliament speaker Mr Ali Akbar NateqNouri as saying that "Iranian officials clearly see the hands of the US at work behind the Afghan issue."
Mr Nateq Nouri was speaking in a meeting with the deputy chairman of Russia's State Duma lower house, IRNA said.
Iran said earlier yesterday the takeover of the Afghan capital Kabul, by the Taliban militia marked the beginning of a crisis, and urged Afghan leaders to stop fighting and start negotiations.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Alaeddin Boroujerdi, told IRNA his country was concerned about recent developments in Afghanistan and would push for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Shi'ite Iran had supported the ousted Kabul government of President Burhannudin Rabbani and was hostile to the Sunni fundamentalist Taliban, which Iranian media allege are manipulated by Pakistan and the US.
But Iranian officials have recently held talks with representatives of the militia.
Mr Boroujerdi denied Mr Rabbani's ouster was a setback for Iran's diplomacy, saying it was only interested in the restoration of peace and stability through negotiation.
Iran deeply distrusts the ultraconservative Sunni Muslim Taliban and strongly opposed the military campaign leading to the capture of Kabul on Friday.
Afghanistan's new rulers yesterday ordered government employees to grow beards within 1 1/2 months or face Islamic punishment.
An announcement broadcast by the official Kabul Radio, monitored in Islamabad, said the order would apply to employees working in all government offices and in the military, and anyone flouting it would face action under Islamic Sharia law.
But the broadcast did not specify what penalties would he imposed.
It said employees would not he allowed to have short beards. But it did not explain how long a heard should he or say whether beards could be trimmed.