Record stores are falling on hard times around the world – but probably none have it as bad as the music stores of Pakistan, where two dozen shops were blown up on Wednesday. 

According to reports in the Pakistan Daily Times:

Bombs ripped through several music and video shops in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, wounding at least four people, officials said.

The injuries occurred when a blast hit a video shop located on the 2nd floor of Bannu Market in main Bazaar of the garrison town of Kohat, which has seen several attacks in recent months blamed on Pakistani Taliban militants. 

“The bomb was planted in a CD and video shop, resulting in the wounding of at least three people. The shop was destroyed and some nearby shops were also damaged,” local police official Shakirullah, who goes by one name, told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Separately, bombs destroyed two dozen businesses, including around eight music shops in Purani Ghari Mandi in Miranshah, the capital town in the North Waziristan, officials and residents said.

The attack came overnight, at the end of a one-week deadline issued by militants in the town near the Afghan border for shopkeepers to close outlets showing still and moving images, or selling music.

“We received a letter one week ago from the Taliban that we must close down our business and not sell any music, videos or photos,” shop owner Inayatullah Khan told AFP. “Now they have carried out their threat and left us without our business.”No one was hurt in the attack, according to the sources. 

At least no one died – but this is happening in a country that’s a key US ally in the “war on terrorism”. 

According to the libertarian think tank the CATO Institute:

Some cooperation between the United States and Pakistan is necessary to wage the war against terrorism, but that cooperation must not evolve into a new long-term strategic alliance. Washington should view Pakistan, with its dictatorship, failed economy, and insecure nuclear arsenal, as a reluctant supporter of U.S. goals at best and as a potential long-term problem at worst.

Synthtopia gets visitors from Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshewar, Islamabad & Sialkot in Pakistan.

If you’re one of those visitors, let us know what’s happening with music in Pakistan.