Taliban demands end to music on Pakistan buses

[Jasman0717 9]

By RIAZ KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Bus drivers in northwest Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against those who played music or movies for their passengers, an industry official said Tuesday.

Transport workers in Mardan town received letters this week from militants saying that buses offering such entertainment were guilty of spreading "vulgarity and obscenity," Walid Mir, general secretary of the town's transport union, told The Associated Press.

The militants said they would check the buses and that suicide attacks would be carried out against vehicles that still had audio and video equipment - prompting union members to act quickly, Mir said.

The Taliban letter complained that traveling in buses that provide audiovisual entertainment was a "source of mental agony for pious people," according to a text obtained by AP.

It is obligatory on us to stop such violations. We request you to remove the vulgar systems ... otherwise suicide bombers are ready," the letter said.

Mardan lies in the Northwest Frontier Province just outside Pakistan's volatile tribal belt where extremists among the Taliban, al-Qaida and local groups are waging a violent campaign against authorities in a bid to impose their strict interpretation of Islam.

Elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, extremists have targeted girls' schools, police posts and other symbols of authority.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime that was forced from power in late 2001 banned art, secular music and television, vandalized the national museum and destroyed artwork or statues deemed idolatrous or anti-Muslim.

Local police said they had no knowledge of the threat.

"Certainly, we can look into it if we receive a complaint," Mardan police chief Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said.

Mir said the transport companies had no plans to make a report.

"We did not report it to police because it is a matter of human lives. What can the police can do? It involves the lives of hundreds of passengers, and we do not want to put them in danger," Mir said.

Edited January 21, 2009 by jasman0717

[pedroh 21]

they dont like music??

or do the bus drivers listen to a lot of hip hop?

[Yoink 7]

Can we get a surge going there to oust these retards....

Why torture them at Gitmo? Send them to a Jonas Bros. concert

[Imua 0]

That sucks... are they going to forbid taxi drivers from playing music too?

In Nepal that was how I found out what music was popular, by listening to whatever was playing on the bus/taxi....

Then again if this was Nepal I think the transit cos. would stage a BANDHA(strike) - there was an 11-day bandha while I was there simply because students were demanding a 50% cut in fares....however they weren't threatening to kill people...

Edited January 21, 2009 by Pattu Rani

[mawilson 2,133]

Taliban demands end to music on Pakistan buses, Do as I say or I will kill you

In other words... "Silence! I kill you!"

[Jasman0717 9]

Can we get a surge going there to oust these retards....

Why torture them at Gitmo? Send them to a Jonas Bros. concert

I hope Obama makes this a high priority issue. Those morons are starting to gain strength and are killing more of our troups again. Let's get Jesse Ventura and do some payback time'

[almaty 19]

i heard some of their music...taliban is spot on...you can just take so much of celine and jessica simpson

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Come mister taliban, tally me banana...

Edited January 21, 2009 by Mister Fancypants

[Yoink 7]

Can we get a surge going there to oust these retards....

Why torture them at Gitmo? Send them to a Jonas Bros. concert

I hope Obama makes this a high priority issue. Those morons are starting to gain strength and are killing more of our troups again. Let's get Jesse Ventura and do some payback time'

WHat happened to the WWF star, Actor, and Governor?

[Imua 0]

i heard some of their music...taliban is spot on...you can just take so much of celine and jessica simpson

What, no Banghra????

[pedroh 21]

Can we get a surge going there to oust these retards....

Why torture them at Gitmo? Send them to a Jonas Bros. concert

LOL

[Saddle Bronc 124]

they dont like music??

In Afghanistan 1996-2001, it was popular sport for Taliban "enforcers" to sieze and break casettes and then stream the tapes on poles.

or do the bus drivers listen to a lot of hip hop?

Mostly, Pakistani ghazals (or pirated ones from neighbouring India).

The only music Taliban ever enjoyed were:

• sound of bullets or shells popping
• sound of human screams from beatings, bayonettings, or stonings (in typical approach, these were enjoyed by Taliban's forming benefactor Zia ul-Haq)

[pedroh 21]

i heard some of their music...taliban is spot on...you can just take so much of celine and jessica simpson

What, no Banghra????

[SAT 9,609]

By RIAZ KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Bus drivers in northwest Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against those who played music or movies for their passengers, an industry official said Tuesday.

Transport workers in Mardan town received letters this week from militants saying that buses offering such entertainment were guilty of spreading "vulgarity and obscenity," Walid Mir, general secretary of the town's transport union, told The Associated Press.

The militants said they would check the buses and that suicide attacks would be carried out against vehicles that still had audio and video equipment - prompting union members to act quickly, Mir said.

The Taliban letter complained that traveling in buses that provide audiovisual entertainment was a "source of mental agony for pious people," according to a text obtained by AP.

It is obligatory on us to stop such violations. We request you to remove the vulgar systems ... otherwise suicide bombers are ready," the letter said.

Mardan lies in the Northwest Frontier Province just outside Pakistan's volatile tribal belt where extremists among the Taliban, al-Qaida and local groups are waging a violent campaign against authorities in a bid to impose their strict interpretation of Islam.

Elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, extremists have targeted girls' schools, police posts and other symbols of authority.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime that was forced from power in late 2001 banned art, secular music and television, vandalized the national museum and destroyed artwork or statues deemed idolatrous or anti-Muslim.

Local police said they had no knowledge of the threat.

"Certainly, we can look into it if we receive a complaint," Mardan police chief Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said.

Mir said the transport companies had no plans to make a report.

"We did not report it to police because it is a matter of human lives. What can the police can do? It involves the lives of hundreds of passengers, and we do not want to put them in danger," Mir said.

Didn't the US airways A320 jet use Taliban engines? The Pratt&Whitney Taliban 100s?

[Jasman0717 9]

i heard some of their music...taliban is spot on...you can just take so much of celine and jessica simpson

Deano, you crack me up