Pakistani men beaten and shaved by Taliban for listening to music

Taliban militans shave four men as punishment for listening to music

From correspondents in Peshawar, Pakistan
News.com.au
April 26, 2009 05:38pm

TALIBAN militants in northwest Buner district shaved the heads and moustaches of four Pakistani men as punishment for listening to music, one of the men said.

Buner has been subject to huge US concern after hundreds of Taliban fighters advanced into the area from the neighbouring Swat, where the hardliners fought a brutal, nearly two-year insurgency to enforce Islamic law.

"I was with three other friends in my car, listening to music when armed Taliban stopped us and, after smashing cassettes and the cassette player, they shaved half our heads and moustaches,'' he said.

"The Taliban also beat us and asked us not to listen to music ever again,'' said the terrified man.

Local police said they had no information about the incident.

The victim said neither he nor his friends lodged a complaint with police, as this would have been "useless.''

"It might have annoyed the Taliban further and I fear for my life,'' the man said.

Residents in Mingora, the main town in Swat, said Taliban posters had been put up in streets and markets ordering women not to go shopping.

The posters had appeared after the Taliban's controversial agreement with the government to enforce Islamic law in the region.

"We will take action against women who go out shopping in the markets and any shopkeeper seen dealing with women shoppers will be dealt with severely,'' read the poster from the Swat branch of Tehreek-e-Taliban.

"The peace agreement does not mean that obscenity should be re-born,'' it added.

Hardline Islamists in the extremist Taliban consider it "obscene'' for women to leave their homes, and ban females from venturing out in public without an immediate male relative -- namely a father, brother, son or husband.

For years, Swat was a popular ski resort frequented by Westerners but the Pakistani government effectively lost control of the mountainous district after the violent Taliban campaign to enforce sharia law.