The Panos-Hoot Indo Pak monitoring project
Data sourced from the Pakistan Press Foundation
Quite separately from the attacks on the media, in the last three years Pakistan saw a growing incidence of attacks on cinema, cable, audio and video, symptom of the growing influence of the Islamic fundamentalism of the Taliban, and geographically more or less concentrated in the areas bordering Afghanistan.
As journalist Ashfaq Yusufzai reported for Inter Press Service from Peshawar, On
He added, according to news reports, a video shop in front of a police station in Bannu, the hometown of the NWFP chief minister Akram Durrani, was attacked by armed men suspected to be Taliban on Feb. 27. They destroyed CD players and CDs of Urdu, English and Indian films.
Through the whole of 2005 there were no incidents. Then in November, there was the first one in the
"Reports from Swat said more than 250 television sets were put to the fire in union council Malookabad, located within the limits of Mingora city. The television sets, along with VCRs, CDs and music and movies videos were piled up and burnt in a bonfire. The crowd, which included the union council Malookabad nazim Fazal Jalal, raised slogans of Allah-o-Akbar when the flames of fire leapt into the air and turned the heap into ashes."
As the report puts it this act was a response to a local maulana linking the October 8 earthquake which devastated the region, to a "sign of Allah¿s displeasure with our sins and way of life." He urged the people to cleanse their homes of the instruments of obscenity and start living life in accordance with teachings of Islam. And, apparently almost everyone in the area heeded his advice. The News said similar incidents had also been reported from a few other places in the NWFP.
In 2006 there were incidents in January, February, March June and August, a total of six. Three of these are reported from the
In 2007, fundamentalist ire against sinful media picked up steam, beginning with no incidents in January and ending with 23 in December alone. Early in the year the Mujahadeen banned music on buses in the Bajaur agency in Fatah.
Throughout the year thereafter there was a steady incidence of the burning of CD and video shops and attacks on cable operators. Ten in April seven in May and seven in June. In December there was an explosion of incidents. Both audio and video cassette shops are destroyed.
The largest number of incidents were recorded in the
LIST OF PROVINCES AFFECTED
12. Nowshera
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Sindh
Balochistan
YEARWISE, MONTHWISE DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENTS
2007
December –
November –
October –
September –
August –
1. JUI-F asks for closure of video, CD shops – Sadda (Kurram Agency; FATA)
2. PPF News Flash: Explosions destroy three music st... – NWFP (NWFP)
3. Explosions destroy three music stores in Buner; sh... - Buner and Matta Tehsil (NWFP)
4. Swat video shops receive threatening letters - Swat (Matta Tehsil and other areas) (NWFP)
5. Three music shops blown up in Malakand – Malakand (NWFP)
6. Three music shops damaged in Landi Kotal explosion... - Landi Kotal (FATA)
July –
June –
1. Three CD shops blown up – Matani (NWFP)
2. CD shops bombed in Charsadda – Charsadda (NWFP)
3. Video stores bombed following militant group¿s thr... – Charsadda (NWFP)
4. Taliban blow up CD shop, letter threatens local me... – Bilitang (NWFP)
5. Video shop owners asked to wind up business –
6. Taliban ban TV, CDs in public in parts of
7. Two CD shops bombed – Kohat (NWFP)
May –
1. Man accused of bombing music shop was mosque¿s Ima... - Sherpao village (District Charsadda, NWFP)
2. Video, CD shops given 10-day deadline – Nowshera (NWFP)
3. Explosions damage seven music shops – Mardan (NWFP)
4. Attempt to blow up music shops in Charsadda foiled... – Charsadda (NWFP)
5. Taliban ban music in
6. Militants smash cassette players, camera phones in... – Khar (Bajaur Agency; FATA)
7. Blasts blow up seven CD shops in Charsadda – Charsadda (NWFP)
April –
1. Cable operator¿s office attacked in Kohat – Kohat (NWFP)
2. CD shop-owners fear wrath of Jamia Hafsa –
3. Music shops blown up in Swabi – Swabi (NWFP)
4. Local Taliban raid video shop, burn CDs in Islamab... –
5. Five madressah students held for