Video shop owners asked to wind up business | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Video shop owners asked to wind up business

PESHAWAR, June 21: Owners of two more leading video shops here have been warned of dire consequences unless they wind up the sale of video compact discs (VCDs) within two months.

Letters were sent anonymously through postal system to Shabana Videos and Bilal CD Shop in Nishtarabad on Tuesday.

Terming video centres ‘dens of obscenity and vulgarity’, the letters state: “You should learn a lesson from the treatment meted out to ‘dens of vulgarity’ in Mardan and Charssada. We give you two months’ time for winding up this business, failing which you will be responsible for all the consequences.”

Three incidents in which video shops were targeted have already occurred in the provincial capital during past three months. In two of the incidents, explosive devices went off near the video shops, while two video shops were set on fire in another incident.

Last month, two men, claiming to have come from the Lal Masjid in Islamabad, visited the office-bearers of local CD shops owners’ association and ‘asked’ them to end their businesses. Sometime later, unknown callers had made threatening calls to the organisation’s office-bearers.

The letters’ sender stated that as Muslims, it was their responsibility to eliminate vulgarity from society, adding that one should not indulge in spreading vulgarity or assist anyone in this regard.

The sender quoted a Hadith and urged the video shop owners to shut down their ‘un-Islamic’ business as it had resulted in spreading vulgarity.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/22/2007