KOHAT, July 6: A new group with the name of ‘Haidri Taliban’ has warned the people of Ustarzai town to restrict their religious and public activities to Imambargahs, mosques and hujras, while threatening the clerics against charging fee for delivering sermons on special occasions.

Leaflets distributed in Ustarzai also threatened women of dire consequences, if they visited shrines in fashionable dresses along with mobile phones.

They asked all the caretakers of seminaries to bring them under central command of a committee and the record of the funds collected in the name of religion and construction of mosques should be assigned to honest people.

They also asked the people to limit mourning for only two months instead of holding majalis (religious gatherings) round the year. A warning was also issued to the visitors and shopkeepers of Mian Khel bazaar to wear and sell Islamic dresses.

Syed Zahid Jan adds from Upper Dir: Barbers in the town of Darora have been warned to stop shaving beards of customers, residents said on Sunday.

“Barbers have stopped trimming and shaving beards in the town following circulation of a threatening letter (leaflet) by a group of Taliban,” a local said.

A militant group, claiming affiliation with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, pasted leaflets on the doors of barber shops, warning them to stop trimming and shaving beards immediately otherwise ‘action’ would be taken against them.

The barbers had received similar threatening letters in the past as well, particularly in the areas of Dir Khas, Usherai, Bibyawar and Wari, but no group had claimed responsibility for those letters earlier.

The leaflets in Darora were distributed after a year’s gap. The area was feeling presence of militants for the last one month as girls schools were burnt and bombed in Bibyawar and Wari areas.

In the past, such warnings were usually ignored, but the new leaflet has sent a wave of terror among the local barbers, who were already facing difficulties in the region.

The leaflet, written in Urdu, has threatened that those barbers, who would continue to shave beards in defiance of the ‘order’, would be responsible for the killing of people in their shops that would be bombed.

“Our dear Muslim brothers,” it reads, “God has created us to worship Him, and keep the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Hazrat Muhammad, peace be upon him). Therefore, it is to be said that shaving off and trimming beards is banned not only here, but also everywhere. Anyone, failing to abide by this order would be responsible for his own life.”

With Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan written on the lower-half, the leaflet also carried a note, saying that in case of bomb blasts, the barber would be held responsible for killings and “he would go to hell.”