Pakistan: Pro-Taliban strikes against music shops

Music shops ordered to close down and are attacked with bombs and violence if they don't, writes ADN Kronos International's Syed Saleem Shahzad from Karachi

The pro-Taliban warlord Abdullah Mehsud, 29, who operates in the Waziristan province of Pakistan, has recently announced the implementation of strict Islamic laws in North and South Waziristan and urged all music and video shops to close down their businesses. Several shops have also been blown up in South Waziristan after the shopkeepers ignored the message.

After fighting along with the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mehsud was captured in 2001 and spent 25 months in US custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. After his release in March 2004 he returned to the Pakistani-Afghan border region. His 'return from the grave' in the lawless mountainous regions has brought a wave of violence to the region, that has been a sanctuary for remnants of the Taliban regime and their supporters.

The attacks on music and video shops in the area is seen as an unmistakeable sign that Abdullah Mehsud's influence in the area is growing.