Gul Badshah, a 40-year-old blind artiste, is sitting under the widespread shadow of a big tree in a far-flung village in Khyber Agency. He is waiting for someone to come and invite him and six of his other blind brothers to a musical programme usually arranged on weddings, engagements and at other cultural and traditional occasions.

He is not the only artiste who sits at this same place almost every day waiting for an invitation to a musical night. His six other blind brothers, who are the "nuts and bolts" of their band, sit around each other under the shadow of tree. They have not received any work in the last ten years and are always seen busy gossiping and sharing stories with each other to kill time.

The six blind brothers, Salim, 20, Arman, 24, Wasim, 30, Sajjad, 33,Akbar, 35, and Gul Badshah, used to run a musical band known as "Band of blind brothers". They started it almost twenty years ago but were forced to abandon it some ten years ago when the situation worsened in the Khyber Agency of Fata.

Due to terrorist threats, the blind brothers went underground, losing their only source of income.

The blind musicians have uncountable sweet memories of their past when they used to go to the nearby villages with their ‘Beenjo and Mangay’ (Musical instruments) where they sang songs, played instruments and attract spectators to pay them some money to feed their huge family.

Badshah says growing militancy in the area after 9/11 compelled them to dismantle their band and stop attending musical parties.

The blind brothers are not the only ones who have suffered due to the decade long militancy, various others including, cassette and CD shops owners, barbers journalists, politicians, Khasadar and Levies forces personnel and other citizens have suffered damage to their life and properties. Some changed their professions and shifted to other safer zones but they are still in hard time as they have to pay for the rent of their homes and other utility bills.

Mujahid Ahmad, 50, had started a cassette shop when he was only 10 years old. He came up with this idea to start selling musical cassettes some 40 years ago when he used to go with artistes and musicians in musical programme usually arranged in his area. He winded up his shop a few years ago and now drives an old taxi in Peshawar. He says his shop was blown up several times. The lone cassettes shop in Khyber Agency had a big archieve of the old Pashto songs and ghaszals of artistes who passed away decades ago.

Ahmed says that they received written threats pasted on the walls warning them to close down their shops or be targeted. He says that it was a handsome source of income for him but now he struggles to accommodate his family expenses with his earnings.

People in Khyber Agency, especially the IDPs, artists, barbers, musicians and journalists are suffering but remain optimistic and hopeful that sooner or later they would be able to return to their hometowns with their families where they would have the life they had before 9/11.

They appreciate the government and security forces efforts for the restoration of peace due to which they could go back to their respective places.

"I hope that the bad days are over soon, now peace is restored and people start arranging musical nights celebrating cultural and traditional events again", Gul Badshah says.