For many singers and dancers in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), an Islamist-led crackdown on musical performance has meant a humiliating return to prostitution. ‘‘The ban has forced me to become a prostitute again after 12 years,’’ lamented Mahjabeen, 30, an accomplished singer of Pashtu-language ghazals in Peshawar, 40 kilometers from the Afghan border. Suspected murderer stoned to death PESHAWAR: Hundreds of tribesmen stoned to death a man after he allegedly killed his rival over a land dispute in a northwestern Pakistani town, officials said on Sunday. Mulla Khel, 45, was dragged from his home in the tribal town of Lakhro and publicly stoned over a tribal jury’s order, local administration official Mohammad Murad said. He said Mulla Khel had killed fellow tribesman Abdul Rehman over a property dispute in a hand grenade attack. (AFP) ‘‘It has frightened my audience away. They are too scared to organise musical evenings. My sole source of income was singing, so now I have no option but to revert to prostitution to support my family.’’ Since the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance of pro-Taliban Islamic parties swept NWFP in October polls and won control of the provincial parliament, police have been waging an anti-obscenity drive in accordance with the recommendations of the MMA’s Sharia (Islamic law) Council. But because no formal bans have been issued by the MMA police have taken matters into their own hands. Since December they have arrested video store owners, locked up singers caught performing in public, arrested musicians for ‘‘loitering’’ and ordered others to conceal their instruments.
