KABUL: Lost in the crowd of tens of thousands of people at Kabul's stadium for a concert by famed Afghan singer Farhad Darya, Shamsullah whispers about how "things have changed very quickly" since he was last here two years ago to witness brutal Taliban justice.

"I can't believe it," he says. "Exactly in the same place two years ago I was witnessing a very sad incident - a man, even if he was criminal, had his hand chopped," Shamsullah said.

"Look now, we have fun - people are happy, they are dancing, we have a concert," the 45-year-old teacher said while accompanying two of his teenage sons to the concert on Thursday night.

The extremely popular singer Darya, who has lived in Europe and America since the early 1990s, played for more than two hours to a packed stadium in his first concert since returning to Kabul earlier this year.

Kabul stadium, once the only place where people could see soccer and other games, was turned into the site of public executions by the fundamentalist Taliban regime which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban, who enforced extremely conservative laws had banned music and all other types of entertainment. Darya's show was the first major artistic performance at the stadium since the toppling of the hardline militia by an American-led invasion in late 2001.

Fittingly, it was also Darya's 'Kabul Jan Salaam' or 'My dear Kabul' which was the first song to be played on Afghan radio following the fall of the Taliban. "When I saw the people eagerly attending the concert I realized that our people, who were deprived of all kinds of entertainment, are thirsty for music," the singer told a post-concert press conference.

The concert was the first of a series that Darya hopes to eventually perform around the country to raise money to build a recording studio for Afghan singers who have suffered badly during the past two decades of war and conflict.

However, the 44-year-old said security poses challenges in much of the war-wracked country and the plan has been delayed for the time being. Head of Kabul TV Azizullah Aryafar said Darya's decision to help fellow musicians was a positive step towards rebuilding the country's musical institutions. -AFP