Peshawar, May 23:P Mobs of Islamic youths today went on a renewed rampage against cable television and advertisements depicting female models in the conservative northwest city of Peshawar, witnesses said. Police remained a silent spectator as some 1,000 Islamists students belonging to the right-wing Jammat-i-Islami party destroyed "obscene" posters of women in the capital of Islamist-ruled province, witnesses said. Police officials declined to comment on the activities. Students carrying large bamboo sticks and riding on buses smashed down signboards. They also cut television cables in several parts of city, witnesses said. The JI students had given a May 22 deadline to the government of Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) to remove all movie posters and signboards with pictures of female models.

The government ordered that "obscene" signboards be covered with black sheets of cloth, but the move was deemed inadequate by the students.

Bureau Report