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Taliban imposing 'music fine' in Pakistan
Afghanistan News.Net
Thursday 1st March, 2007 (IANS)
Having banned music in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Taliban are now imposing a fine of 500 rupees for any one playing it in public.
They have also intensified their attacks on shops and video stores selling music CDs and DVDs and cassettes of locally made Urdu, English and Indian films.
The worst sufferers of the new 'pay Rs 500, if you play' regime are the taxi drivers who complain that even possession of a CD player in their vehicles is enough to invite punishment.
The latest target was in Bannu, the hometown of Akram Durrani, chief minister of North West Frontier Province. The attackers came in broad daylight, destroyed a video shop and dumped the damaged CDs, DVDs and other material with impunity in front of the local police station.
More stringent punishment could be coming, local reports said.
The militants have distributed pamphlets in Pushto language warning drivers of private and public vehicles to avoid playing music or face 'capital punishment'.
'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. The hardline Daawat-ul-Mujahideen had distributed pamphlets in Pushto saying music was banned in vehicles plying in Bajaur Agency.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Anonymous
03-01-07, 05:43 PM |
Taliban imposing 'music fine' in Pakistan
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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waltky
03-01-07, 09:00 PM |
Crackin' down on the Taliban...
:cool:
Ex-Taliban Official Arrested In Pakistan
March 1, 2007 - Former Defense Minister Among 5 Suspects Arrested In Raid, According To Pakistani Intel Official
]Pakistan has arrested former Taliban defense minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, regarded as a top figure in the Afghanistan insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday. Akhund was among five Taliban suspects arrested in a raid on a home in the southwestern city of Quetta earlier this week, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to journalists.
Akhund, said to be a key associate of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, would be the most senior leader from the hardline militia to be nabbed since its ouster from power in Afghanistan over five years ago. There was no immediate official confirmation from the Pakistani government. Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Interior Ministry official handling counterterrorism issues, denied late Thursday that a top Taliban figure had been arrested. Tariq Khosa, police chief of Baluchistan province where Quetta is located, said he was not aware of Akhund’s arrest.
The New York Times, citing two unnamed Pakistani government officials, said Akhund was arrested on Monday, the day Vice President Dick Cheney visited Pakistan, which is under growing international pressure to crack down on Taliban militants believed to seek sanctuary on its soil. Pakistan has repeatedly denied claims from Afghan and Western officials that insurgent leaders shelter in Quetta. During his visit, Cheney had expressed concern to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf over al Qaeda regrouping inside Pakistan’s tribal regions and an expected Taliban spring offensive in neighboring Afghanistan.
[url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/terror/main2529568.shtml:
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waltky
03-03-07, 12:08 AM |
Oops, maybe not...
:o
Leader of Taliban insurgency captured days after Cheney visit
03 March 2007 - Right on cue, Pakistan has captured a leader of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, according to intelligence sources. The claim comes just days after the US Vice-President Dick Cheney flew to Islamabad to tell Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf he must do more to stop the Taliban operating from Pakistan.
]Pakistani security forces have captured Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, alleged to be one of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s two deputies, Pakistani intelligence sources said yesterday. Mullah Akhund served as defence minister under the Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001. But the truth of Mullah Akhund’s detention remains unclear. The Taliban denied it, the Pakistani government refused to comment, and The New York Times reported US sources had confirmed it. If he is in custody, he would be the most senior Taliban leader captured since 2001, and it would represent a serious blow to the insurgents.
Ironically, Mullah Akhund has been in custody before - in 2001, when he surrendered to the Northern Alliance, only to be released under an amnesty. The timing of his capture is convenient to say the least. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that Mullah Akhund was captured on Monday - the same day Mr Cheney was meeting with General Musharraf. It follows a series of high-profile arrests of al-Qa’ida militants in Pakistan that have followed US criticism.
The location of Mullah Akhund’s alleged capture is likely to raise eyebrows too. It did not come in the tribal areas, where the writ of Pakistani law has never fully extended, and General Musharraf agreed a highly controversial truce with militants last year. Instead Mullah Akhund was reportedly captured in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province and a city that is firmly under Pakistani control. Quetta lies close to the border with Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where British troops have faced heavy fighting with the insurgents.
[url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2323396.ece:
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