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Some interviewed refused to criticise militants, fearing their eventual return.Īnd while the insurgents may have been pushed back, conservative attitudes toward music continues to resonate in the area.įor 24-year-old Abdul Latif, his love of playing the rabab is largely kept secret from his family who consider such instruments to be out of sync with Islam. Many still remain cautious in K-P, however, fearing the gains are tenuous at best. We can play anywhere, whenever people invite us," says rabab player Akhtar Gul during a performance at a hujra – a traditional Pashtun community space.Īs music has returned to its traditional settings in K-P and its merged districts, slick broadcasts like Coke Studio have helped introduce Pashtun acts to millions of music fans across the world. Security in the country has dramatically improved in the years since. In 2014, the Army launched an intense operation to push the militants out. "They were asking people to stop music but villagers never accepted them," says Noor Sher from the Sufaid Sang village, where his family has been making rababs by hand for 25 years.Īmid the chaos, the art form persevered thanks to an increasing number of Afghan musicians who -fleeing violence in their own country and resettled in Peshawar and other places - opened music schools that kept the tradition alive. Singers and musicians fled en masse, while others were gunned down.Ī few diehard connoisseurs continued to invite musicians to play in private shows at hujras and weddings, albeit without large sound systems that could possibly attract the unwanted attention and wrath of militants. Public performances were all but halted as waves of suicide bombers unleashed havoc.ĬD markets were bombed, instrument shops destroyed, and musicians were intimidated or either outright targeted.
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"If you remove culture from a community, tribe, or ethnic group, the community will be eliminated." "The extremists were killing artists and singers in the society to create fear," explains singer Gulzar Alam, who was attacked on three separate occasions and later fled the country, fearing for his life. The areas which they did not control reeled from the fear of a Taliban strike. A Pakistani Taliban movement soon formed and took control of ex-Fata and parts of K-P.
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The shift towards violent extremism intensified with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the later Taliban regime of the 1990s.Īfter the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the Taliban, militancy erupted across the Durand Line, especially in K-P.
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Yet the slow creep of extremism had been threatening that tradition for decades.īeginning in the 1970s, more hard-line Islamist movements started gaining influence in the Pashtun areas along the border with Afghanistan, promoting strict interpretations of the religion including dismissive takes towards music. "We love our religion but at the same time we love our traditional music." "For centuries, we were a liberal society," explains rabab player and member of the National Assembly (NA) Haider Ali Khan from the scenic Swat Valley. Pashtun music is characterised by the rabab, a Central Asian stringed instrument, played to the beat from tablas (drums), with songs salted with florid lyrics describing the pain of unrequited love or calls for political revolution. it has been a part of our culture from time immemorial," says Farman Ali Shah, a village elder and Pashto poet in Warsak village near the provincial capital. Shops selling instruments are open and thriving again, while local broadcasters frequently feature rising Pashto pop singers in their programming.Īnd now, up and coming bands such as Khumariyaan from Peshawar have reached rare, nationwide acclaim after appearing on the popular Coke Studios broadcast, where they fused traditional sounds with modern tastes - spreading Pashtun music far from its native homeland. Performances, which once took place in secret, are returning. PHOTOS: AFPįor years, the distinctive twang of Pashtun music was drowned out by rattling gunfire and deafening explosions as musicians in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and in the recently merged tribal districts were targeted by militants.īut, as security improves, the centuries-old tradition is staging a comeback. Artistes sing a melodious tune with traditional musical instruments at a local residence in Peshawar while a craftsman makes the traditional Tamboora at his workshop.