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Alert

Homemade bombs damage music and video shops following Taliban warning

(PPF/IFEX) - Unidentified militants targeted music and video shops with crude homemade explosive devices on 4 May 2007, damaging a number of shops in two markets in the town of Charsadda, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

The first explosion occurred at the Ayaz Market in the Charsadda Old Bazaar at about 1:30 a.m. (local time), destroying four CD shops and a bicycle shop. A few hours later, a second blast took place in the Wawa Khan Market in Tangi Tehsil, destroying three CD shops and a hair-cutting salon. The police said they had foiled a third blast at Koroona Station.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but letters from local Taliban militants had warned music stores against continuing their business. According to press reports, music shop owners had been told to wind up their businesses by 27 April or "face the consequences."