After banning music in the tribal areas, local Taliban are reportedly fining taxi drivers and citizens Rs 500 for listening to music cassettes in their cars. I was stopped by the Taliban at Sarband village near Bara, Khyber Agency, last Saturday. They searched my taxi and found some music cassettes, and then asked me to pay Rs 500 as a fine, Khanimullah, a Peshawar-based taxi driver, told Daily Times. Another taxi driver, Ali Khan, recounted a similar experience at Sangu near the Khyber Agency border two weeks ago, when men claiming to be local Taliban fined him Rs 500 because he had a Pashto music cassette in his car. They said music is a sin and prohibited in Islam, he said.
Hard-line group Daawatul Mujahideen on February 25 distributed Pushto language pamphlets saying music was banned in vehicles plying in Bajaur Agency. The pamphlets warn drivers of private and public vehicles to avoid playing music, or face capital punishment.
Meanwhile, suspected Taliban militants attacked a video centre in front of the Mandan police station in Bannuhometown of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani - on Tuesday. Niaz Ali, the video centres owner, said that armed men attacked the shop at around 8:30am and destroyed CD players and CDs of Urdu, English and Indian films. The men then dumped the destroyed CDs in front of the police station.