ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Gunmen waylaid six men in eastern Afghanistan and cut off their noses and ears, apparently for having shaved off their beards, an Afghan news service said on Tuesday.

The bandits stopped and searched a bus on Monday at Tangi Abresham, on the highway from the capital Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, and ordered out all men who had shaved their beards, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

It said the noses and ears of six men — all Afghans — were cut off to punish them for shaving their beards in defiance of the Taliban movement’s order to all Afghan Muslims to grow long beards.

The six were taken to hospital in Jalalabad, AIP said.

On Nov 19, four journalists, two of them from Reuters, were killed when unknown gunmen ambushed their convoy at Tangi Abresham, some 90kms east of Kabul.—Reuters