JAKARTA - Indonesia's Aceh will soon form the country's first religious police squad to enforce Islamic laws on Muslims in the rebellious province, the official Antara news agency reported on Tuesday.
The government last year granted the staunchly Muslim region more powers including freedom to impose Islamic Sharia law on Muslims in a bid to appease separatist passions in the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. '
'Its main task will be to supervise the implementation of Islamic law, such as that on extra-marital affairs,'' Antara quoted provincial secretary Tanthawi Ishaq as saying.
Ishaq said 2,500 people would be recruited for the squad, although it was unclear exactly when it would begin operations and if it would be overseen by civilian police.
He added that some regions in Aceh would regulate dress codes in some places from March 15, the Islamic new year.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, although the vast majority follow moderate interpretations of Islam.
''We ask non-Muslims not to wear immodest clothes,'' Ishaq said, adding hair salons could no longer assign employees to deal with clients of the opposite sex.
The dress code mainly applies to places such as mosques and other public facilities. Women can only have their faces, hands and feet showing, according to the codes.
In theory, sharia includes stoning to death for adultery and amputations of hands for theft but Acehnese religious leaders have said they would make a lighter interpretation of the law.
So far, implementation of sharia has failed to halt resistance against Jakarta rule. Rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have said they opposed the entire autonomy package and insisted they would take nothing less than independence.
Nationalist President Megawati Sukarnoputri has repeatedly said no part of the country would be allowed to secede.
Some politicians have proposed sharia for the entire country, but have been opposed by the Muslim mainstream.