As smoking cigarette and chewing Khad (narcotic leaves) or trading them were banned in Somalia's Lower Jubba province, southern Somalia, by the Union of Islamic Courts, Somali Tobacco Company based in the capital Mogadishu, has become the first tobacco company to announce it would burn its cigarette products if Islamists demanded so.

Mohamood Abdulahi Wehliye, Somali Tobacco Company manager, has told reporters Wednesday that he was determined to burn Super Match cigarettes that his company trades in, adding that he was abiding by the Islamic Courts orders.
He said there were talks ongoing between the Islamic Courts and his cigarette trading company over the expected ban on cigarette smoking to be introduced in the capital, indicating tranquility and peace introduced into the capital by the Courts were more important than his cigarette trade.
More than 20 persons nabbed with smoking and chewing Khad are for the third day in the jails of the port city of Kisamayu under the Islamist administration since the ban was enforced on 13 November this year. (pi)