Afghanistan:
Music download shop attacked, two killed
Two people were killed and several wounded by a bomb that exploded in a music download shop in Afghanistan's southeastern town of Khost on 22 April 2007
A bomb blast in a mobile telephone shop where residents regularly download music into their mobile phones, two men were killed and seven wounded, several of the wounded in critical condition. The explosion happened in a crowded produce market in the heart of Khost. Shopkeepers quickly shut down their businesses after police, who cordoned off the area, said they feared another bomb had been planted in the market.
Rock star Salman Ahmad desribes his encounters with angry mullahs and oppressive dictators who wanted all music to be banned from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Five people were injured and 10 shops damaged in a bomb blast on 28 January 2010 in a music and video market in the small town of Jand in Pakistan's Punjab province
A concert with the exiled Pakistani singer Haroon Bacha on 9 December 2009 marks the start of 'Impossible Music Sessions' in New York showcasing banned music
Pakistan's performing artists face deadly occupational hazards. Lahore's music festival, and theatres across the city are bombed in co-ordinated overnight raids
"No doubt this is the most critical phase in the history of our province," writes journalist Shaheen Buneri about the situation for artists in north-western Pakistan
Musicians, singers, and other art performers are in panic. We are all at risk, Zeek Afridi, an up-and-coming singer fromm Peshawar, told correspondents of Radio Liberty
Ethnomusicologist John Baily and Freemuse executive director Marie Korpe speak about the Taliban’s campaign against music and musicians in Afghanistan and Pakistan
In Buner district a young man told that Taliban militants had shaved the heads and moustaches of him and three friends for listening to music in the evening of 25 April 2009
On 27 April 2009 the Lahore High Court imposed a ban on songs by two Lahore singers, deeming them 'indecent' and 'against the values of a Muslim society'
In an article published by Washington Post, Freemuse ambassador and singer Salman Ahmad and filmmaker Karam Pasha criticise the Taliban of hijacking Islam in Pakistan
Lima Sahar charmed her way into the third spot of the 2008 version of the wildly popular 'Afghan Star' competition. Now in exile, she fears for her life
The musicology department at Punjab University in Lahore has moved out of the university after a religious student group threatened with ‘dire consequences’
As the Taliban silence music in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, Freemuse ambassador Salman Ahmad denounces the Pakistani peace accord with the Taliban
On 15 December 2008, a group of musicians were attacked by armed men. Two days later at a hospital in Peshawar, the harmonium player Anwar Gul died from his wounds