Afghan Abdul Ahmadi fears his pregnant wife and daughter may have been slaughtered by the brutal Taliban regime.

Mr Ahmadi, who fled to Britain several years ago, has not been able to contact his wife in the Afghan capital Kabul since July.

He fears she may have been killed or captured by the henchmen who murdered his father two years ago and imprisoned him for three months without trial.

He has his mobile phone with him constantly, hoping his wife may call and say she and their daughter Hena are alive.

He said: "I'm very worried about their safety with all the fighting that has been going on.

"I look at photographs of my wife and daughter and sit and think about them. I think of all the things which could have happened to them. Sometimes I cry."

He said: "I don't think people here or in other European countries realise the situation in Afghanistan. It is far worse than you read in the newspapers. It is the children and the women who always suffer. My worst fear is that they've been killed or captured."

Mr Ahmadi, who runs a takeaway shop in the Brighton area, is desperate for news of his wife who is trapped in the country he left in 1996 because of the 30 years of upheaval and civil unrest.

The last time he saw hiswife was in Pakistan in July. He phoned her to say he was back home and has not been able to contact her since.

Mr Ahmadi says he is so haunted by the fear and mistrust the regime that he cannot give the name of his wife for fear of it reaching the Taliban.

He also fears being the victim of people in Britain taking revenge for the atrocities of September 11 in the United States.

He said: "It is very sad what happened. Most people want to live their lives in peace. I don't tell people I'm Afghan. I have no home, we are like gypsies travelling from one place to another. I will not keep my Afghan passport because I am no longer Afghan."

Mr Ahmadi was born 40 miles from Kabul about 21 years ago when the Russians were fighting a bloody battle in the country. He is not sure of his exact age because birthdays are not celebrated in his culture.

His family was educated and upper-class, a fact which put his family in immediate danger.

His father had three wives and Mr Ahmadi has five sisters and ten brothers, some of whom worked as civil engineers for the United Nations. When the Taliban swept to power the family feared for their lives.

Mr Ahmadi said: "The Taliban captured my father and killed him about two years ago because of his position in the former government and the fact we were educated and they don't like educated people."

He was at college aiming to be a doctor but was imprisoned for three months.

He said: "There are not trials. They shoot and kill you."

He escaped by bribing a guard and fled to Europe, passing through Iran and Pakistan.

He sought political asylum in Brighton, which was granted, and is soon to receive full British citizenship.

Two years ago his mother said she wanted him to marry an Afghan Muslim woman.

He travelled to Pakistan to meet her because he was unable to re-enter Afghanistan for fear of being captured.

He said: "I was worried about meeting her as I had been living in Britain with the British culture and did not know if I would like her but it would break my mother's heart if I didn't."

He met his wife-to-be in Pakistan in 1998 and he liked her immediately.

The couple became engaged and married a year later before she became pregnant with their first child, Hena.

When he arrived here, Mr Ahmadi learned English at Chichester College and passed three A-levels.

He said: "My wife and daughter will not be safe in Afghanistan. I don't think anything will change. It is a country where children grow up with guns and not knowledge."