Shopkeepers selling CDs and DVDs in the city fear religious extremists will force them to close. Groups of madrassa students have been going around markets, especially Aabpara Market, in recent days warning shops to shut down because they were “corrupting society”. Shaikh Adnan, who runs a shop in Aabpara Market, told Daily Times that some 10 to 15 male students from a local madrassa had asked him to shut down his business and take up something else. “They came here a few days ago and told me quite politely to get into some other business,” he said. He in turn asked them for financial assistance. “They directed me to go see the head of the madrassa in this regard but I have not had the time to do so,” he said.Most shop owners were reluctant to talk about the threat from madrassa students. One shop owner, asking to remain anonymous, said he had been sent a written notice by madrassa students telling him to close his business. “They have given me a one-month deadline,” he said.
He said this was the first time he had received such a threat in 25 years in the business. “I have invested about Rs 1,200,000 and I fail to understand where I can go if I have to do some other thing,” he said. A salesman at one of Islamabad’s leading CD and DVD centers also reported that three religious students had come to his shop. “They told us that this was not an appropriate business,” he said and added that the police came in shortly after they left.