Militants torch man’s house for playing music at a wedding

Khyber Agency resident Hussain Khan was asked to pay a fine but defied the militants’ orders.

BARA: A banned militant organisation in Khyber Agency torched a house on Tuesday to punish its residents for playing music and beating drums during a wedding ceremony, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sources said that Hussain Khan, a resident of Akakhel area in the agency’s Bara district, was sent a notice by militants to appear before them and pay a fine for playing music in his house. Hussain defied the order, resulting in the militants torching his house in the area considered their stronghold.

According to sources, none of the family members were at home at the time of attack. The family, they said, has moved to Peshawar due to the military operation in Khyber Agency.

The militants have been involved in this barbaric practice for some time.

Bismillah Khan Afridi, a resident of the agency’s Jamrud district, told The Express Tribune that two years ago, members of the same militant organisation arrested some people in Bara for playing drums at a wedding ceremony. “We told the militants to excuse us as we were outsiders and ignorant of the law but they arrested us and released us only after paying them a fine of Rs15,000.”

Ghulam Farooq, an official of the Bara Political Administration, said that when his office was informed of the incident in Akakhel, they sent paramilitary Khasadar troops to the area but the militants had fled.