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At one of Kabul's upscale wedding halls, a celebration was in full swing around midday Tuesday. Afghan dance music could be heard from inside the hall. According to reception hall's manager, Shadab Azimi, 26, at least seven wedding parties have been held since the Taliban takeover of Kabul two weeks earlier, with festivities moved to daylight hours because of security concerns. The Taliban, who during their previous rule between 1996-2001 had banned most music, except for devotional Islamic songs, did not announce a ban of live music, Azimi said. However, wedding singers canceled on their own, for fear of running afoul of possible new Taliban restrictions. He said in recent celebrations, couples played taped music. Azimi said business was down by 80 per cent over the past two weeks, presumably because of a sense of uncertainty. The manager said Taliban patrols check in a couple of times a day, asking if he needs help with security, but have not seemed threatening. And unlike the ..
A mid-air wedding in the presence of guests and relatives took place inside a SpiceJet chartered flight on May 23 morning wherein COVID-19 social distancing norms were violated, sources said on Monday. The chartered flight left the Madurai airport and remained airborne for approximately two hours on Sunday morning before returning there, they added. A senior official of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that the flight crew has been off-rostered for not enforcing the social distancing norms onboard. SpiceJet has been directed to lodge a complaint with relevant authorities against those people who did not follow the COVID-19 norms inside the flight, the official said. He also said that the DGCA "will take strict action" after it completes its probe into this matter. Images and videos of the mid-air wedding were circulated on social media on Monday. The images and videos purportedly show people standing extremely close to each other as the couple t