Mick Hartley

Blowing up girls' schools, murdering dancers…the delights of sharia continue to spread across Pakistan's Swat valley:

Days after banning girls' education in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, the Pakistani Taliban has directed men in the region to wear Muslim skull caps and stop shaving their beards.

In an edict issued on Tuesday, the militants set January 25 as the deadline for the residents to start wearing caps and growing beards.

They said that after the expiry of the January 25 deadline, no man would be allowed to trim his beard as the Taliban were trying to establish a "complete Islamic society".

"The move was in the best interest of the people," they said.

The step is being seen as part of the Taliban's efforts to implement their self-styled Islamic laws in Swat, located just 160 kms from Islamabad.

Taliban have already issued a diktat to the barbers in the valley to resist from shaving and trimming beards, following which all the barbers have displayed posters saying "Shaving is banned" at their salons.

And of course no music:

Bus drivers in northwest Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against those who played music or movies for their passengers, an industry official said Tuesday.

Transport workers in Mardan town received letters this week from militants saying that buses offering such entertainment were guilty of spreading "vulgarity and obscenity," Walid Mir, general secretary of the town's transport union, told The Associated Press.

The militants said they would check the buses and that suicide attacks would be carried out against vehicles that still had audio and video equipment — prompting union members to act quickly, Mir said.

The Taliban letter complained that traveling in buses that provide audiovisual entertainment was a "source of mental agony for pious people," according to a text obtained by AP.

"It is obligatory on us to stop such violations. We request you to remove the vulgar systems … otherwise suicide bombers are ready," the letter said.