Suspected militants targeted music shops with explosive devices on Friday, damaging around two-dozen outlets in two different places, local police said. The attacks on the music shops came a week after the suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan, which left 28 people dead. “No loss of life has been reported in the attacks on the music shops,” a senior local administration official told Daily Times.
Twenty shops were destroyed in the two explosions. The explosions took place late Thursday night after the shops had closed, the official said. Police managed to foil a third blast in Koroona Station where the interior minister was attacked. No group has claimed responsibility for the two blasts but letters from suspected Taliban have warned local shopkeepers against continuing their businesses. “The shopkeepers have been given till April 27 to wind up their businesses or face the consequences following issuance of the letters on March 23,” the official said. Law and order across NWFP has deteriorated in the past year, bringing the ruling Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government under criticism from the federal government. However, the provincial government alleges that federal “security agencies” are responsible for the Taliban-style incidents.
Agencies add: The first explosion occurred in Tangi after midnight and damaged nine shops. A few hours later, a second explosion occurred in Charsadda, wrecking one shop and causing less damage to several others, according to Associated Press. The Charsadda explosion also damaged a house that was near the CD shops. Wajid Afridi, who runs a mobile phone shop in Charsadda, said that after the bombings, many shop owners had put up posters proclaiming that they would no longer sell musical ring tones for fear of attacks from the militant extremists. |