UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
14:00 Mecca time, 11:00 GMT
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA
Deaths in Pakistan music shop blast

Dozens of entertainment shops in northwest Pakistan have been attacked in recent years [Reuters]

Three people have been killed after music shops and businesses were bombed in a wave of attacks in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), police have said.
 
The deaths came in an attack in Kohat, a town which lies about 75 km south of Peshawar, Abdul Rauf, a local police chief, said.
A series of bomb attacks also destroyed two dozen businesses, including around eight music shops, in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, officials and residents said.
The attacks in the border region came at the end of a one-week deadline issued by fighters loyal to the Taliban in Miranshah for shopkeepers to close stores using images or music.
 
'Failing' clampdown
 
"We received a letter one week ago from the Taliban that we must  close down our business and not sell any music, videos or photos," Inayatullah Khan, a shop owner, said.

"Now they have carried out their threat and left us without our business."

Dozens of entertainment shops in northwestern Pakistan have been attacked in recent years by groups who say that music and images are against the teachings of Islam.

Fighters in the region are loyal to the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
 
Pakistan's new government launched peace talks with the fighters after coming to power in March.

The new administration said that a clampdown against Taliban loyalists by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, was only fuelling militant activity.

 Source: Agencies
 
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