With the porn to the stake of the Taliban
(For Angeles Espinosa - ElPais.com ) - was enough for an anonymous threat last week DVD sellers of Lahore made a bonfire of their porn movies. Up to 50,000, according to local press, a tenth, say traders. In any case, a victory for the Taliban, emboldened by their success in the North West Province (NWFP), try to extend their moral crusade to the rest of Pakistan. Many fear that has started the Talibanization of Lahore, the second largest city and one of the most cosmopolitan. "I used to sell an average of 20 to 25 films a day, now I see with a song in the teeth if I get five," says Said Khan Hass, in charge of a place called Vicky. Before means before the Taliban intimidation and pyre. But beyond acknowledging that the business has plummeted, DVD vendors Hall Road prefer to remain silent and let the water back on track. Hall Road is one of the main bazaars of Lahore, with about 6,000 jobs, about 400 of them from movies and music. No respondent admits selling porn tapes, but business owners have organized patrols to monitor that does not happen. Given only local awards and Bollywood Westerners to be ordered. "We received a letter in which they threatened to blow up the market through the air if it were retreating from selling pornographic films," admits the president of the association of merchants, Babar Ali Khan. And despite its history of resistance to police raids and the campaigns of the defenders of intellectual property, the association agreed to the claims of the extremists. "Just days before the three bombs exploded Gari Shahu", explains Khan, referring to attacks on three stations popular with young juices that left one dead and six wounded. The victims told police that days before had been visited by "religious" people who warned against the presence of unmarried couples in their establishments. Following the attacks, an unknown Movement for Dignity was responsible for authorship. Everyone agrees that is part of a campaign to impose strict moral Taliban under the guise of religion. Attack the music and movie stores has become the distinctive method of the Taliban to send a message to citizens when, in his opinion, they are violating the moral code.
In the slums of Karachi in those with supporters, radical Islamists have forced close to the cable TV providers. Now the danger is that manage to create what the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called "rights-free zones", as in the NWFP. In that province, singers, musicians and other artists have had to leave or refrain from acting. The coalition of religious parties that took the provincial government in 2002 closed the first bazaar of the capital, Peshawar, where they sold instruments and musicians gathered, and later banned the music directly. The change of government in February has yet to reverse that situation.
