Pakistani Taliban shave wedding singers' heads, moustaches

PESHAWAR: Taliban extremists shaved the heads and moustaches of a troupe of Pakistani singers, then clashed with a marriage party and took six hostages, officials and witnesses said on Thursday.   

The Islamists intercepted the musicians overnight near the conservative northwestern town of Lakki Marwat where the group was due to perform at three weddings, local police said.   

After beating the troupe and smashing up their instruments, the militants then shaved the performers' heads and moustaches, a witness said.   

Early on Thursday the angry hosts of one wedding went after the Taliban and a clash erupted in which two local residents were wounded, police said.   

The militants then took some six people hostage, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, they said.    

Lakki Marwat lies some 160 kilometres southwest of Peshawar, near the lawless South Waziristan tribal district where the Pakistan army has fought pitched battles against Al-Qaeda linked militants.   

Pro-Taliban militants have bombed music and video shops and barred hair salons from shaving beards in a bid to impose strict a Islamic code as in neighbouring Afghanistan during the 1996-2001 Taliban era.   

The practice of shaving people's beards and hair is designed to humiliate them and is often used as a punishment in the devoutly Islamic tribal zones.