Haroon Rashid BBC reporter in Peshawar

Cable operators in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province have shut down indefinitely to protest against the ransacking by armed men of a network premises.

The operators say that on Tuesday night around 30 to 40 men raided the premises of a network operator in the provincial capital, Peshawar.

The Islamists swept to power in provincial polls

The raiders completely destroyed the network's equipment, worth millions of rupees.

The operators shut down the network in the province from 5pm local time (12 noon GMT) on Wednesday.

Only Pakistan TV was being shown.

The operators said the protest would continue until the government took action on the issue and arrested those responsible.

Cinema raids

They said they were operating under licence and it was the government's responsibility to provide security.

They could not identify the assailants.

The raid came after the new Islamist provincial government began a crackdown on media it deemed as vulgar and obscene.

The conservative six-party alliance, called the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), won a majority in the province in November.

The alliance had pledged to enforce Islamic laws in the province.

It sent special police squads to raid cinema houses in Peshawar and pulled down posters showing actresses.

Raids were also carried out at dozens of video shops in the city and hundreds of films were confiscated.

The religious party's success in recent elections was mainly because of their effective campaign against growing American involvement in the region.

But the Islamists are also concentrating on symbolic social issues to please their supporters.