Peshawar locals warned against wearing western clothes

PESHAWAR: Taliban hardliners are warning people against wearing Western clothes in the capital of Pakistan’s northwest region where the military is battling militants, residents said Thursday.

‘I received a piece of paper written in Pushto, saying that doctors and medical workers are wearing unIslamic dress which should be stopped,’ said Abdul Hammed Afridi, chief executive of Peshawar’s main government hospital.

But people working at smaller, private companies said they were steering clear of Western-style trousers and shirts, instead donning traditional shalwar khamiz after colleagues were beaten up in the streets.

But people working at smaller, private companies said they were steering clear of Western-style trousers and shirts, instead donning traditional shalwar khamiz after colleagues were beaten up in the streets.

‘My office advised me in writing to stop wearing western dress and start wearing shalwar khamiz after incidents of violence,’ Mohammad Saghir, who works for a private company, told AFP.

'Last week one of our colleagues was kidnapped by the Taliban, beaten and warned that pharmaceutical staff should stop wearing western dress,’ said Mohammad Nasir Khan, president of a medical representative’s organisation.

‘They put a warning letter in his pocket after beating him,’ he said.

‘One employee of our courier company was beaten on Tuesday and militants warned him to stop wearing T-shirts and trousers,’ an employee at a private company also told AFP on condition of anonymity.

(Courtesy Dawn)