Punks have heads shaved to ‘put them on right moral path’

They were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for spiritual cleansing, police chief Iskandar Hasan said.

It was the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in the secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million people to have imposed Islamic laws.

Adultery is punishable by stoning to death. Homosexuals have been lashed in public with canes and women have to wear headscarves.

Punk rockers have complained for months about harassment but Saturday’s roundup was by far the most severe when baton-wielding police broke up the concert.

Dozens were taken to a police detention centre in the hills, 30 miles from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, for re-education.

Twenty-year-old punk, Fauzan, was mortified. “Why? Why my hair?” he said. “Why are they treating us like criminals?”

Police chief Hasan said: “ We’re just trying to put them back on the right moral path.”

Aceh was given semi-autonomy to end a separatist struggle in 2005.