With spade and gun, Afghans are rebuilding, now they need faith in government
It is an unexceptional rural scene - scores of peasants digging a canal through wheat and cumin fields. But then the village leader points to several heavily armed lookouts standing on the distant ridge line. On the other side of those barren hills, he says, are the Taleban.
The men of Narjoy, in Taleban-dominated Uruzgan province in south-central Afghanistan, are defending their village against the Islamist fanatics, even as they repair their rudimentary irrigation system, ruined by years of neglect, with the help of a Singapore-based NGO, the Central Asia Development Group.
'The Taleban threatened to kill us three days ago if we continued work on the canal,' said head man Dad Mohammed. 'They say what we are doing is not jihad, that we're working for non-Muslims. They want every house in the village to give them one young man for their jihad.'
Under Mr Mohammed's leadership, Narjoy has refused to side with the Taleban. 'I was a commander in the jihad against Russia,' he said. 'Later, the Taleban came and ruled us for seven years. But they did nothing - they only persecuted us. Even now, all they do is talk of religion.
'But we need water, we need seeds, we need fertiliser. This canal hasn't been repaired for 13 years. Once the work is done, we'll have enough water.'