Islamic militants smash cassette players, camera phones in Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Hundreds of Islamic militants Saturday smashed car cassette players, camera cell phones and ordered tribesmen to grow beards in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, witnesses and officials said.

Some 300 armed bearded men took dozens of cassette players from cars and snatched mobile phones with built-in cameras and destroyed them at two main markets near Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district, they said.

The group which calls itself “Mujahedin” (Islamic warriors) said music and photos were against Islamic sharia law and warned clean-shaven men of “strict action” if they did not grow beards, an AFP reporter in the area said.

The Mujahedin also preached at local shopkeepers to stop carrying out various businesses which were against sharia. A local administration official confirmed the incident, saying “it was peaceful.”

The latest incident comes two days after suspected Islamic militants blew up music shops with crude home-made devices at three markets late Thursday in the town of Charsada in Islamist-ruled North West Frontier Province.

Khar, Sunday, AFP