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MINGORA: After months of successful military offensive against Taliban Militants, owners of local cinemas gather courage to open the doors of their cinema halls to the entertainment starving folk in the violence-hit Swat valley of North Western Pakistan.
Locals and officials told this reporter that as majority of the areas in Swat districts had been cleared of Taliban militants, life was coming back to normalcy. "On the eve of the Eid management of Swat cinema has been given permission to resume screening movies. This will help the locals to get relief from the trauma of war inflicted upon them by three years of violence and instability in the region", Sher Ali Khan an official of the district management said.
There are two cinema halls in the district i.e. Swat cinema and Palwasha cinema. After necessary repair Palwasha cinema will also start screening movies.
On the 2nd day of Eid Swat cinema managed two shows and it continues to show romantic Pashto movies for the youth of the district who were earlier banned by Taliban to enjoy music and movies.
"Today i am planning to watch the movie on the big screen. I am so excited", says Abdullah, 28, who recently returned to his village after security forces pushed back militants to the mountainous regions from the main Mingora town of the district.
Locals say that mostly youth are visiting the cinema and the numbers are growing for every day to come. "Currently we are attracting youth from the main urban centres as routes to the upper Swat valley and adjoining districts are still under lengthy spells of curfews", Imran, one of the cinema workers informed.
Swat valley is a picturesque district in North Western part of Pakistan, where two years back militants affiliated to Maulana Fazlullah launched severe attacks on police stations, girls schools and music shops and asked the government to impose their narrow version of Islamic legal system in the region.
According to media reports Taliban bombed more than 200 music shops in the valley over the last two years. Hundreds of musicians, singers and female dancers have already migrated from the valley to other safer districts in the country.
