PESHAWAR, Nov 20: The bloody roadside slaying of four journalists has highlighted a breakdown of law and order in Afghanistan, where warlords and bandits appear to be operating with impunity.

The victims in Monday’s incident east of Kabul were identified as an Italian journalist, a Spanish newspaper correspondent and two employees of the British news agency Reuters.

Their convoy was ambushed along the road from Jalalabad in the eastern province of Nangarhar to Kabul — a remote, mountainous route that has long been a haunt of outlaw gangs and highway robbers.

The sudden collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan left vast tracts of the country in the hands of tribal elders and warlords who owe scant loyalty to the Northern Alliance forces who have taken charge in Kabul.

Even their detractors admit the Taliban did at least keep a tight grip on the law and order situation.

Now their swift and dramatic fall from power has left internal security forces struggling to fill the void.

Nasrullah Baryalai Arsalai, the brother of Nangarhar’s newly installed governor, said a temporary security breakdown was inevitable.

“You can’t expect security in Afghanistan after 24 years of war and the collapse of the regime,” Arsalai said in Peshawar.

“It’s not really anarchy, but there is no remaining system. We need time for the re-establishment of security.”

UN spokesman Eric Falt told a press conference in Kabul on Monday that land routes out of the Afghan capital were no longer safe for international personnel. “The fastest and the safest means of travel is by air,” he said.

The Taliban withdrawal from Nangarhar a week ago left the province in the hands of fiercely independent Pakhtoon tribal groups whose first and only real loyalty is to their tribal elders.

Journalists returning from Jalalabad since Governor Haji Abdul Qadeer’s new administration was installed on Saturday, say the area remained lawless, and it was unclear who was in control.

Retreating elements of the Taliban added to the traveling hazards.

But new police chief Hazrat Ali believed local factions would fall in line with the new administration.—AFP