Popular Pashto singer Karan Khan has been raided by Peshawar police at a music festival and his musical instruments have been destroyed. The ceremony was held last Saturday (March 18) in the cell of a local resident, Dilshad Afridi.
In an interview with Mashal Radio on March 20, Dilshad Afridi claimed that the police in the backyard, without any notice, entered his cell chanting Allahu Akbar slogans while Karan Khan was chanting: “We thought that The Taliban came because at one point there were slogans of Allah Akbar, there were shouts, but then we saw that all these people were in police uniforms, their number would be from thirty to thirty-five, in their hands. There were knives and guns, they also beat the people sitting at the party and also the artists sitting on the stage with Karan Khan, some policemen broke musical instruments and some people took mobile phones from the people, there was chaos and then they got married. Along with Zalmai (Zum), the artists and others were taken to the palace.
In the videos obtained by Mashal Radio, it is seen that Karan Khan sings, a man throws money at the performers sitting on the stage, and immediately through a door, SH and Zafar Khan enter the cell with the other policemen very fast and Screaming to close the party, some of the photos also contain broken musical instruments.
In an interview with Mashal Radio on March 5, Zafar Khan claimed that he had canceled the event due to the threat of law and order in the area due to complaints from locals. Denied the allegations of violence.
“People in the area were very angry and complained to us over and over again, so we came to the party because we didn’t want to hurt the artists, so we took the artists under our protection,” he said. We have nothing to do with musical instruments but we have protected the artists from the angry people standing in the streets. There is no legal ban on music but if the loud sound of loudspeakers disturbs the peace of the local people and “They complain to the police, so as a police officer it is my responsibility to control the situation.”
