PESHAWAR (TIP): The Pakistani Taliban havewarned shopkeepers in a popular market to stopselling “obscene films” and Viagra-style male potencypills.Shopkeepers said that they found handwrittenpamphlets containing the warnings after opening Feb09 in Karkhano market on the edge of thenorthwestern city of Peshawar.

“Selling sex drugs, vulgar films and obscene moviesare against Sharia,” said copies of the pamphletdistributed in the name of Tehreek-e-Taliban Khyber.”All those involved in this business are warned toquit this occupation and start a lawful business orface the consequences,” it said.

Those who received the threatening letter spoke toAFP on condition of anonymity because of fear ofTaliban reprisals.Dozens of shops in Karkhano openly sellpornographic films and male potency tablets,according to witnesses.The market borders the tribal district of Khyber,where fighting has recently intensified in a longrunningPakistan military operation against theTaliban and other Islamist militias on the Afghanborder.

Shopkeepers selling music and films are routinelythreatened across the northwest, where hundreds ofDVD and CD shops have been bombed in the past bymilitants who deem their business un-Islamic.At least 10 people were killed and 26 woundedFriday when a bomb exploded near a DVD shop inKalaya, the main town of Orakzai tribal district.