May 7, 2005	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426

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MIRANSHAH, May 6: A bomb blast wrecked a cluster of music and video shops in a remote town where militants had warned people of possible attacks, police said on Friday. There were no casualties in the attack in Miranshah, the main town of the troubled tribal region of North Waziristan, 300km southwest of the capital, Islamabad, and close to the Afghan border. The explosion happened after midnight and the street where the shops were concentrated was deserted.

Militants, linked with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, distributed hand-written leaflets in Miranshah earlier this week asking hotels and music shops to stop showing television and selling DVD movies within five days or face the consequences.

“We received that leaflet, but ignored it and threw it away,” Mohammed Aziz, one of the shopkeepers, told Reuters.

“We don’t know who has done it. We demand that the government provide us security and compensate us for these losses.” Days earlier, a Miranshah man was shot dead by a suspected Taliban gunman. A note was found on his body saying that he was punished for spying on militants. Security officials say about 100 militants are known to be in the area — many of them having escaped from an army offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan last year.—Reuters