In a massive crackdown on Sunday and Monday the Taliban religious police arrested hundreds, mostly ethnic Tajiks, who arrived here in the Afghanistan Capital after being displaced from Shomali Valley in recent fighting, they said.

The Taliban have crammed prisoners in the compound of Governor House which has been converted into a jail, witnesses said.

But a Taliban police official said only 60 people have been arrested so far. "The infiltrators entered the city to create unrest," Abdul Razzak, chief commander of the Taliban police, told reporters.