LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Angry protests are a common sight in Pakistan. Crowds often gather to denounce the United States or the Pakistani government, which critics accuse of being an American puppet.





AntiTaliban protesters in Lahore.





But in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore this week, several hundred protesters gathered on a scorching day to take on a very different target: the Taliban.





"I will fight them to my last breath and the last drop of my blood in my body. I'm not scared," vowed newspaper publisher Jugnu Mohsin.





She was leading a crowd of several hundred students, artists, writers and others, chanting "the Taliban is the enemy of Islam" in Urdu.





Public protests against the Taliban started cropping up in various Pakistani cities after a video emerged showing militants publicly flogging a teenage girl. The Taliban's recent declaration that the Pakistani government and judicial system are "unIslamic" has also outraged many educated Pakistanis.





Neha Mehdi moved to Lahore to study. Now, she fears her way of life is being threatened by the Taliban.





"I cannot give up my education, and I cannot give up the way I'm living," the 23-year-old student said. "These Talibans have ruined the reputation of Islam."





"There were threats here also from the Taliban that if we gather they might just bomb us," Mehdi said.  Watch how the anti-Taliban movement is growing »





More than 250 miles away, Pakistan's military continued its assault against Taliban militants who want to impose a radical interpretation of Islamic law in the country's northwestern tribal regions.





Pakistan's government recently signed a deal that would allow Islamic law, or sharia, in the tribal belt as long as the law was imposed in accordance with the country's constitution.





Mehdi and others in Lahore fear that the Taliban's version of sharia -- which forbids girls from attending school, as well as music, poetry and dance -- is slowly creeping into Lahore, the center of Pakistani culture.





"Our way of life is being threatened," said Kamiar Rokni, a fashion designer who took part in the protest. "And if we don't do anything about it, then you're just going to be sitting around and one day the way you live and what this country's all about is going to stand for nothing."





Rokni said he fears the Taliban "want to change the way we exist."





Lahore may be hundreds of miles away from the Taliban-held areas outside Islamabad, but it is no stranger to militant attacks.





"Last year we lost 39 people in acts of terrorism and this year we have lost 17 people in Lahore alone," Lahore police Chief Parvez Rathore said.





As he speaks, a heavily armed escort is one step behind the police chief even as he walks outside the walls of the city's police headquarters.





In March, gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore, killing six Pakistani police officers and the team's driver.





Weeks later, militants dressed in police uniforms stormed a police training center in the city, prompting an eight-hour stand-off with police. Eight cadets were killed during the March 30 siege, which the government blamed on Pakistan's Taliban.





Police in Lahore said the attacks would not have been possible without local support. Residents say there is no doubt that the Taliban have support in Pakistan's second largest city.





"They're here in Lahore, this is the thing," said Jamal Rahman, who plays guitar for the Lahore-based band, "Lal" which means "Red."





"Little groups of the Taliban are going around and intimidating people, causing fear, telling women to cover up and if they don't they'll shoot them."





Rahman and his cousin, Aider -- who plays flute for "Lal" -- are using their music to rally society against what he says is a growing threat by the Taliban.





"We want to try to get people aware, and try
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