Tuesday May 22 1:16 PM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s Taliban rulers ordered the country's non-Muslim minorities Tuesday to wear a distinctive badge on their clothes while going outdoors.

The Taliban-controlled Voice of Shariat radio, monitored in Islamabad, quoted religious police chief Maulawi Abdul Wali as saying the order had been issued in the light of a fatwa, or religious decree, given by Islamic scholars.

``The ulema (scholars) issued a fatwa that the non-Muslim population of the country should have a distinctive mark such as a piece of cloth attached to their pockets so they should be differentiated from others,'' it quoted Wali as saying in an interview with the official Bakhtar news agency.

``And this decision is in accordance with the Sharia (Islamic law),'' he said.

Indian Hindu nationalists from the Bajrang dal shout anti-Talaban slogans as they burn an effigy representing the Taliban government in Bhopal, May 22, 2001. The activists were protesting a plan by the Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to prescribe a distinctive dress code for non-Muslims living in the country. (Reuters)

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