MMA men again target billboards

Published June 22, 2003

MINGORA, June 21: Workers of the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal on Saturday destroyed signboards in different parts of the Malakand region.

In some places, the MMA activists carried away signboards but the police have so far declined to register cases against the MMA activists or arrest any one of them.

Local MMA leaders denied the impression that they were trying to follow in the footsteps of the Taliban regime, terming it an action by some “emotional youngsters.”

Activists of the alliance have already succeeded in scaring tourists and investors from the Malakand region.

Few signboards — with faces of women being smudged — remained along the Peshawar-Mingora and Peshawar-Dir roads, as most of them had been removed by unidentified persons.

Workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Swat, also began what they termed it to be a drive against obscenity.

According to a press statement issued here on Saturday, a team of the JI office-bearers, led by Akhtar Ali Khan, met with the police, administration and local government authorities informing them about their intention to hold meeting with the owners of video rental shops and cinemas to make their campaign successful.