NWFP police chief Sharif Virk said on Saturday that criminal gangs were issuing threatening letters to audio and video shopkeepers, barbers and schools. “In most cases, the Taliban are not involved in these activities,” the chief frontier cop told the NWFP Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Order. The statement comes amidst growing incidents of intimidation in several districts where the Taliban are enforcing what they see as Islamic laws. He said crime was rising because certain areas had been given district status without any planning. Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir on the occasion said, “The government needs help from politicians and neutral clerics to maintain law and order.”