PESHAWAR, Dec 16: A night-time curfew was imposed on Monday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad just six weeks after a curfew was lifted across the country following 23 years of war, police said.

Jalalabad police chief Ajab Shah said a “dramatic increase” in criminal activity was the primary reason for the restriction, which forbids commercial activity or travel on the streets from 10pm to 4am daily.

“It is a means of cutting down on increasing criminal activity,” Shah told AFP.

“But it is also taken as a preliminary caution against anti-social elements who had taken advantage of the lifting of the previous curfew.”

Afghanistan’s cities and towns had breathed a collective sigh of relief early last month when the national curfew was lifted 23 years after it was imposed across the country during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.

Last month a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said original discussions then were focused on withdrawing the curfew on an experimental basis during Ramazan, which ended more than a week ago.

Shah said the restriction would only apply to Jalalabad, which is located some 75km from the Pakistan border.

The volatile country is still wracked by violence, and security officials have increased patrols following a rise in attacks in the past several weeks.