(AKI/DAWN) - The local Taliban Shura (Council) in Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan has imposed a ban on the sale of CDs and cassettes and music in buses and passenger coaches. The Shura on Monday also ordered owners of music and video shops in the regional capital of Miran Shah to wind up their businesses immediately. Armed volunteers raided music centres and CD shops in the town and asked the shopkeepers to stop playing music.Eyewitnesses said the militants stopped passenger vehicles on the Miran Shah-Mirali road and removed cassette and CD players. Locals said that the militants, who virtually control the region, also asked people not to play or listen to music in public places, including Miran Shah Bazaar. The Shura announcement said that anybody violating the order would have to face "consequences".
Most music shops and hair-dressing salons in Khar in the tribal area of Bajau have also been closed and their owners have switched to other businesses. Some of them moved out of the tribal area after pro-Taliban militants bombed their shops over the past weeks.Last week, armed men set up road blocks in different areas and stopped private and public transport vehicles to search for cassette and CD players. They seized cassettes and players from several vehicles and smashed them on the spot. Masked gunmen also warned clean-shaven commuters to grow beards or face punishment. They also ordered passengers to remove musical ring tones from their cell phones and not to use mobile phones with built-in cameras.
According to residents in Bajaur, car-owners and drivers of public transport vehicles have removed cassette and CD players from their vehicles and owners of music shops in Khar town, Inayat Kallay Bazaar, Siddiqabad, Nawagai, Raghgan, Lagharai, Loi Sam, Pashat and other areas have closed the business and opened vegetable shops and general stores. They said that the board of governors of the Bajaur Public School and College, an English medium institution run by the political administration of the tribal area, had changed studentsÂ’ uniform from shirt and trousers to shalwar-kameez after they received threats and "orders" to stop using "western uniform."