Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia said yesterday eight foreign aid workers detained for allegedly preaching Christianity would face punishment under Islamic law.
The Deputy Religious Police Minister, Mr Mohammad Salim Haqqani, also warned other foreign relief groups against meddling with religion in the fundamentalist Islamic state.
"Any decision that I make or [the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar]makes will be in the framework of Sharia," he said, referring to the Taliban's puritanical version of Islamic law.
Two Americans, two Australians and four Germans were arrested over the weekend along with 16 local staff of the German chapter of US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Shelter Now International.
"Our message to other aid agencies is to respect Afghanistan's culture and religion, which are precious," said Mr Haqqani, who claimed the arrests were his finest achievement as deputy chief of the religious police.
"If any other NGO does the same as Shelter Now they will face a similar fate," he said. The aid group's office has been sealed and a school it was running has been closed.
So far, the Taliban has not responded to US, Australian and German diplomatic requests to visit the detainees, who are being held in religious police custody in Kabul pending further investigations.
Mr Haqqani displayed two Bibles confiscated from the aid workers, as well as a video compact disc on Christianity which he said was shown to an Afghan Muslim family in an effort to convert them.
Trying to convert an Afghan Muslim to another faith is a crime punishable by death under the militia's unique brand of Sharia law.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has ordered four people to be put to death for allegedly masterminding several bomb blasts in Kabul last year, a report said yesterday.
Nine others were sentenced to life in jail following investigations conducted by the Taliban intelligence agencies, according to state-run Radio Shariat.
The convicts, arrested last year, were found guilty of several bomb blasts which claimed casualties in Kabul, it said. The authorities had also recovered explosives and a wireless set, the broadcast said. The condemned will be publicly executed in Kabul today, it added.
Meanwhile, the UN has expressed its "serious concern" over the arrest of the aid workers. Ms Eliane Duthoit of the UN Co-ordinators' Office for Afghanistan said the UN "expressed its serious concern" at the meeting with high-level Taliban officials in Kabul.