Alyas Khan, the once proud promoter of rich Pashtu musical tradition through his music shop in Mingora, capital of Pakistan’s terror-hit Swat valley, is now a disillusioned man.

The business he launched back in the 1990s by selling his inheritance for $7,500 is on the verge of collapse as followers of Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand pro-Taliban cleric, regularly bomb music and video shops.

"Militancy has badly affected our business. The majority of the music shop owners have switched over to other businesses," he said. "They have witnessed how some of them were penalized by the militants for violating Fazlullah’s orders."

Fazlullah launched an "anti-vice" campaign in 2007 by inciting people through a pirated FM radio station, and warned vendors to stop selling music CDs and cassettes in Swat, previously a popular tourist haven about 250 kilometres northwest of Islamabad. Dozens of shops were blown up in the aftermath.

"The West wants to distract our youth from following the right path. Playing music is against the tenets of Islam and there is nothing bad to discourage it at all costs," Maulana Fazlullah told a reporter in an interview last summer, adding he only liked anthems and songs that arouse passion for Jihad among the youth.

This is exactly what the radical cleric is forcing upon everyone, said Khan, 45.

"He wants me not to listen to my folk songs. I should have no concern with my history and music traditions. Instead I should watch videos full of Taliban violence and listen to Jihadi anthems."

This will deprive the younger generation in Swat of getting acquainted with their roots and even the meaning of their national existence, he added.

Swat was a main centre of the ancient Gandahara civilization centuries ago, but a penchant for music and a yearning for peace survived as its hallmarks even when it stood as a princely state in the early 1900s.

Locals still recall the good old days when music and other artistic expression were encouraged by the enlightened and moderate rulers, which held the title of Wali.