Afghan music collector fears for cassette legacy as Pakistan intensifies deportations

PESHAWAR: A faint Pashto melody drifts through the dense alleyways of Board Bazaar in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, growing clearer as one leaves behind the clatter of shopkeepers and motorbikes. At the far end of a narrow five-foot lane in this neighborhood long known as Mini Kabul, the song becomes distinct: Afghan folk tales echoing from an old cassette player inside a mud-brick shop with wooden gates flung wide. Inside, shelves are stacked with hundreds of cassette tapes, some cracked, others faded, alongside battered televisions and radios that fill every corner.

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