Taliban gun down dancing girl who defied personal warnings

Mingora: Pakistan's celebrated dancing girls are fleeing in fear of their lives as Taliban militants increase their strength in the North-West Frontier Province.

The bullet-ridden body dumped in the centre of Mingora's Green Square sent two clear messages to the locals in the Swat Valley's largest town: "un-Islamic vices" will no longer be tolerated, and the Taliban is now effectively in control.

The woman, known only as Shabana, was found slumped on the ground, strewn with banknotes, CDs of her dance performances and photographs.

In case anyone had not grasped the message, the local Taliban commander Maulana Shah Dauran broadcast a warning on one of the group's radio stations: his men had killed her and if any other girls were found performing in the city's Banr Bazaar they would be killed "one by one".

Last weekend the last of the bazaar's dancing girls, many of whom had trained under Shabana's wing and lived in her house, were seen loading their belongings on to trucks and fleeing to the relative safety of Karachi and Lahore.

Heavy price

The banishment marks a key turning point in the battle for the Swat Valley between Taliban militants and Pakistan's army. It followed recent orders to close girls' schools, shut shops selling music and films and stop barbers shaving beards.

The performances in Banr Bazaar had been one of the city's last "vices", and until last week, the dancers plied their trade, and signs were posted on doors stating: "We have stopped dancing, please do not knock on the door."

More than 1,000 girls have now fled, though some who remained said that Shabana had paid the price for publicly defying the Taliban's mullahs and that she had ignored personal warnings.

"On the eve of January 2, some men knocked at the door and asked for a dance party," said Shabana's father Qamar Gul. "She instantly agreed and opened the room and asked the men to wait while she prepared herself. When she returned the four men said, 'Let us start'. They seized her at gunpoint and told her they were going to slit her throat."