The Pakistani-Canadian rock group Falak has been blacklisted on MTV Pakistan
After having aired the music video for their song 'Yadein II' for a couple of months, the tv channel deemed it too controversial because of its images related to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Falak was supposed to open a park concert for some of Pakistan’s biggest acts in front of thousands in February 2007, but organisers abruptly cancelled the event after MTV decided not to air the video.
The news about the censorship has generated a good deal of media attention for this relatively unknown Toronto-based group.
The video shows flashbacks to flying lessons, farewell videos and letters, open maps, airport security screening and takeoff. The video ends with the famous pictures of a plane that crashes into the second World Trade Center tower in New York.
The melody of Pashto music that has been in chains for the last five years has now found a way to bless the hearts of its lovers with a renewed zeal and life
This radio report tells about religious militants' attacks on music centres, and the reactions from the owners of the music business in Swat Valley of North-West Pakistan.
A complete ban on all singing and dancing has been implemented in Mingora city in northern Pakistan. The singers and dancers have been thrown out of business
Religious militants have blown up numerous music shops in the northwest region. On 9 October in Peshawar a bomb blast damaged almost all 40 shops in Hussain CD market
Dozens of local Taliban extremists attacked and ransacked a hotel in Mingora in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, because people were dancing and playing music there
Feature film about a musician who gets inspired by a cleric to give up music for religious reasons became Pakistan's highest grossing movie of all time
In June 2007 alone, there were more than 20 bomb attacks on music shops in north-west Pakistan. On 4 July, five more music shops were set ablaze with petrol
Two people were killed and several wounded by a bomb that exploded in a music download shop in Afghanistan's south-eastern town of Khost on 22 April 2007
1,200 owners of music centres have been warned by Islamic hardliners to close down, and on 21 April 2007, three more video and music shops were blown up by a bomb
Emotionally charged religious youth screamed slogans against perceived immorality as they burned a pile of music CDs and cassettes in Pakistan's capital on 6 May 2007
'Our prophet was born to do away with music', a mullah from Pakistan's second-largest mosque was quoted as saying on the Danish tv-channel DR1 on 18 March 2007
Extremist religious groups intensify their campaign against all forms of entertainment in north-west Pakistan. Attacks on music centres left one killed and two seriously injured
"Close within three days – or you will be blown away." This threat by the religious extremists became reality when a video centre was blown away on 13 March 2007
A campaign launched by a religious leader against listening to music has taken a dangerous turn in Swat Valley of North-West Frontier Province, reports our correspondent
The Taliban in Pakistan's in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan are imposing a fine of 500 rupees for any one playing music in public, reports several news agencies
