Pak Taliban threaten 'Sharia' punishment for women seeking identity cards

Lahore, Jan 5 (ANI): The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has warned women living in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan against going to the office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and getting identity cards.

Around 200 women from the region had recently submitted forms for computerised identity cards, which they require to benefit from the Benazir Income Support Programme, BBC Urdu reported.

Women going to NADRA offices or coeducation schools would be punished in line with the sharia, the BBC quoted a pamphlet by the Hafiz Gul Bahar group, as saying.

The Taliban has also imposed restrictions on co-education in Pakistan's tribal areas after banning girls' education in Swat.

Pamphlets attributed to the TTP were distributed in the tribal areas, asking school owners and teachers to close down all institutes offering co-education even at the pre-school level.

The pamphlets in Urdu asked the government to stop issuing identity cards to women 'with or without pictures', The Nation reported.

According to laws, every adult above 18 years of age has to have an identity card with his/her photo pasted on it.

The pamphlet said all co-education schools and issuance of identity cards should be stopped by Monday (today). "No school should open Monday with co-education," the pamphlet warned. (ANI)