PESHAWAR, April 23: Musicians at the Dabgari Bazaar have begun packing to shift to other areas of the city to avoid the wrath of some people of the locality.

Scores of singers and instrumentalists have started vacating their 'balakhanas' after continuous harassment.

The most likely alternative place for them is the Tehkal area on the University Road, where their Afghan counterparts have their offices. The rest would end up in Kabari Bazaar in the Qissakhwani Bazaar, the hub of music recording outlets.

Some of the musicians told this correspondent that they had started relocating their outlets after disappointing outcome of their meetings with the residents of various localities. The government had asked the musicians and the local people to resolve their differences amicably by April 15.

"The people are determined to evict us from the locality. They have made it a matter of their honour to dislodge us. We have no option," said a singer. The owner of the building in which their shops were housed is in league with the people involved in the campaign to oust them.

Local sources claimed that the owner of the building had planned to sell it and he wanted it to be vacated by the musicians. The owner had started the movement against the musicians through the Tehrik Nijat-i-Fahashi, they alleged.

"We have to survive on this business. We have given our youthful years to music and are unable to take up a new profession," said a musician. Since the start of the campaign against the musicians, most of them have left the area. Miscreants also set on fire the instruments of some musicians, while the police remained silent spectators.

"The area now wears a deserted look. People listen to music but hate the people who produce it," said a tabla player and added that some his colleagues were weighing the option to move to Mardan or Bannu, where they were in great demand.

He said the musicians had decided to leave the area in the wake of looming danger and the inability of the government to protect them. "There should be a distinction between art and obscenity. The people in general are fond of music but some vested interests are against our business," said a singer.

People from all over the province hire the services of the artistes of Dabgari Bazaar for weddings and other functions. More than 600 musicians, housed in about 60 offices, will have to leave the area.

They say that they would not be able to find a place elsewhere in the city which could house them all. "We never caused a problem to the local people by playing music in our offices," said a singer.