PESHAWAR, Nov 8: Elements of the defunct Taliban are threatening to kill taxi drivers and other Afghans if they work with foreigners, states a pamphlet received here on Friday.

The pamphlet, typed in Pushto and signed by someone purporting to be the Taliban’s “cultural and information officer” for eastern Afghanistan’s Laghman province, was sent to Peshawar- based newspapers this week.

It says taxi-drivers “must avoid picking up and dropping foreigners, otherwise the foreigners would be killed and their luggage set on fire.”

“If the driver and the owner of the taxi were killed, the (defunct) Taliban would not be responsible,” the pamphlet stated.

It also threatened the “death penalty” to Afghan women “who do not leave their jobs” and to “Afghanis spying for the US and its allies.”

Resurgent Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s south and southeast border areas are targeting foreign and Afghan aid workers, officials and troops in a guerrilla campaign the US military has said is aimed at reclaiming power.

The pamphlet called on Afghans to drive foreigners out, saying they should “unite and fight against occupying forces in Afghanistan.”

Afghan authorities in Laghman province, which lies between Kabul and the Pakistani border, were told “to withdraw their support to American forces otherwise they will have to face repercussions.”

The pamphlet could not be independently verified.—AFP