Taleban relaunch radio broadcasts

The Taleban have returned to the airwaves in parts of Afghanistan with relaunch of their broadcasts on a pirate radio station.

They plan to broadcast every day in the main languages of Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto.

The station is called Voice of Shariat, or Islamic Law, and was named after the one the Taleban ran before they were driven from power in 2001.

The station attacks the US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The diet of Koranic readings and preaching sounds much the same as the old Voice of Shariat.

In the past, Taleban broadcasts were virulently anti-western.

The Taleban have sworn to continue their low-level insurgency against the government and its supporters, principally the United States, until foreign forces leave Afghanistan.

Keeping mobile

A Taleban spokesman said one hour of programming would be broadcast twice a day using a mobile transmitter to avoid being shut down by American or Afghan forces.

Asked what the movement would do if it was, he said they would simply set up another.

The spokesman said the Taleban needed their own voice to counter what he called the pro-American stance of the world's media.

The station could be heard in a number of regions in the south where the insurgents and the coalition forces fighting them are largely based.

The Taleban took over Afghan radio when they swept to power in 1996.

They threw out the female presenters and banned music, while their news reports eulogised the movement's leader, Mullah Omar, who is still at large.

The station also defended his decision to offer sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden, who also remains uncaptured.