More than a 100 Chinese women working in a dozen massage parlours in Islamabad and Rawalpindi have moved to Lahore, a reasonably safer locale, following threats to their lives after the abduction of nine Chinese citizens by the Lal Masjid brigade. The Lal Masjid brigade , a group of Islamabad-based Jamia Hafsa students and clerics who have launched a drive to implement Shariah in the country, had abducted nine Chinese citizens, six of them women, on June 22 from a massage parlour in the posh F- 8/3 sector of the capital, accusing them of indulging in ‘objectionable activities.’

All the Chinese citizens were released a day later after some successful diplomatic endeavours.

However, Chinese parlours were closed immediately as the news of the kidnapping of the Chinese citizens spread like wildfire around the world. And now, the capital may be unsafe for any form of massage business.

Locals say that a number of Russian and Turkish women who were providing home massage services in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have also moved to other cities. They said a number of Chinese women working in massage parlours have also fled to China. The Chinese massage parlours providing facilities for acupuncture, osteopathy, hot-stone massage and body-to-body massage, Chinese herbal medicines, and remedial massage, have mushroomed in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad over the last two years.

However, their number had drastically increased over the last year after their clients multiplied.  Once a luxury of the elite was now also enjoyed by the middle and upper middle classes, especially the employed youth.