Not content with sitting behind the razor wire and blast walls of his heavily defended compound, Gulab Mangal, governor of Helmand, Afghanistan's most troublesome province, makes a habit on Fridays of donning a disguise, getting into a car and going looking for trouble - usually bent traffic cops.

"We look to see if they are checking vehicles properly for bombs, to see if they are linked to drug smugglers or demanding bribes from farmers bringing supplies into the city," he says.