Cell phone markets in Peshawar stop selling memory cards
Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: The cellular phone markets in the provincial capital have stopped selling memory cards with musical videos and songs while dozens of shops and cabins have closed down after threats by militants, a source told The News on Sunday.
The management of the main phone markets in Peshawar Saddar and city have closed the shops and cabins where people used to get loaded songs, dance videos and audios through memory cards of cellular phones. The shopkeepers were directed to pack up or change the business.
“The threat has been issued to the shops and cabins running business in the basement or on the footpath outside our plazas. They were mostly dealing in transferring ringtones, songs and various kinds of videos,” said a shopkeeper of the Muslim Market in Peshawar Cantonment while requesting anonymity.
The shopkeeper said these people were told by those dealing in cellular phones to wind up since they were posing a threat to the phone shops. He believed these shopkeepers were involved in spreading pornographic videos for a few hundred rupees.
The police have increased patrolling in the area while the management of various plazas has made arrangements on their own to avoid any untoward incident after threats by the unknown miilitant group.
A few banners have been displayed outside the main cellular phone markets in the provincial capital asking the customers to approach the shops in these plazas for purchasing cellular phones and accessories only and not memory cards.
“These shops aren’t selling memory cards and USBs,” read a banner displayed outside the cellular phone shops on Saddar Road.
Militants had reportedly hurled threats at the cellular phone shops in Peshawar Saddar, Karkhano Market, Hayatabad and in the inner city to stop selling musical videos, ringtones and pornographic films in memory cards otherwise they would be bombed.
A source said unknown militants sent threatening letters and emails to dozens of shopkeepers dealing in cellular phones, ringtones, memory cards and USBs to wind up their business or else face the fate similar to a plaza in Hashtnagri. The threats were taken seriously by the shopkeepers selling cellular phones after a phone markets in Hashtnagri was bombed on February 21. One person was killed and many were wounded while a large number of shops were destroyed or damaged in the explosion.
Earlier the militants had directed the tribesmen in Waziristan to stop using cellular phones and computers as these were the main source of spreading vulgarity and playing music. Hundreds of cellular phones and computers as well as CDs were burnt in Waziristan last year by the militants.The militants had also hurled threats at the internet cafes and the shops selling compact discs (CDs).
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