Plums of thick black smoke billowed up into the sky as thousands of burning CDs littered the famous Hall Road street in the city of Lahore.
This was not a short-circuit fire or the action of an angry mob. The CDs, mostly porn, were being set ablaze by shopkeepers themselves.
"We had received letters from unidentified persons, presumably Taliban or their local supporters, who warned us to immediately close down this business," Taseer Ahmed, a local shopkeeper who has been selling such CDs at Hall market for the last ten years, told IslamOnline.net.
"You all are informed to close down this abhorrent business immediately otherwise you will solely be responsible for the further consequences, including blowing up your shops," read one of the letters.
Under threat of attack, many traders voluntarily torched all their stock of CDs to send a message of compliance to the suspected Taliban.
"Of course, the letters had frightened us. You cannot simply rule out the possibility of bombings here, especially when no part of the country is safe," Taseer said.
Suspected militants have blown up numerous music and CD shops in different parts of the Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders Afghanistan, in the last two years.
Various musicians and singers have fled the NWFP and have taken refuge in other parts of the country after receiving life threats from suspected Taliban.
Taseer notes their business flourished during the past few years.
"Five years ago, it was a tiny business. We used to keep a few porno CDs."
The trader claimed governments under liberal Pervez Musharraf had helped their business, for its own interest.
"Earlier, we used to be very careful while selling or renting such CDs because of frequent raids conducted by the concerned officials, but in recent years we had a roaring business as officials turned a blind eye to our business."
Lahore, Pakistan’s second populous city, is the hub of the film industry.
No Protection
Many of the shop owners were burning their CDs after failing to find a protection, even through the government.
"I admit that I am doing this just because of the pressure. If this had not been the case, I would have continued my business," admitted Taseer.
Like most of his fellow traders Furqan Ahmad believes they have no other option but to bow to the Taliban demand.
"We don’t think that the government is capable of providing protection to us when it cannot protect itself," he told IOL.
Ahmad says that after receiving the threat letters, traders and shopkeepers convened a meeting to chalk out a joint strategy.
"We decided to approach the police and local administration and we did," he explains.
"But what happened was that for days, none of the police or city officials even bothered to visit us.
"Later, police officials told us that they have only 20,000 policemen for the nearly 10 million population of Lahore and most of them have already been deployed to provide security to political and government figures and therefore they won’t be able to provide permanent security to the traders," added Ahmad.
"Then we again called the meeting and decided that we should act in accordance with the letters because there was no other option left.
"When the government itself is struggling against Taliban, who will pay attention towards common traders like us."
Abdul Hadi, another shopkeeper, he has been under family pressure to quit this business.
"When my mother came to know that I am involved in this business, she became very angry. I had been hiding this from her because she is a religious woman," he told IOL.
"I know it would have been much better if I quit this business not because of the Taliban pressure but because of the fear of Allah and the order of my mother. I didn’t do that. But all I can say is that it’s never too late."