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(The Times) Feb. 19, 2009 – The regional government in northwest Pakistan struck a peace deal with Sufi Muhammad, who was released recently after spending six years in jail for leading thousands of his supporters to Afghanistan to fight American forces in 2001.
The chief of outlawed outfit Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) Maulana Sufi Muhammad left for Swat to hold talks with Taliban. (GEO-Pakistan)
In return for the imposition of Sharia, the pro-Taleban cleric is expected to persuade Mullah Fazlullah, his son-in-law, who is spearheading the insurgency, to lay down arms.
“It will be a good step if it ends the bloodletting,” Mohammed Jaffer, whose grocery business has suffered hugely as a result of the fighting, said as he watched from his shop doorway. It is a common sentiment in Swat, desperate for peace after years of violence. But reining in Mullah Fazlullah will be no easy task.
The firebrand cleric, 33, has turned what was once a favoured tourist destination into a byword for terror. The Taleban in Swat has conducted a campaign of beheadings, lynchings and bombings, and although Mullah Fazlullah announced a ten-day ceasefire, analysts said that there was no indication that he would agree to put his weapons aside.
A similar deal last year collapsed in a few months and was blamed for giving the insurgents time to regroup. Many people — including Western politicians — accuse the Government of surrendering to terrorism and abdicating its responsibility to protect the lives and property of the people.
“This deal shows that the Pakistani Army has been defeated by the militants and the State is incapable of retaining control over its territory,” Athar Minallah, a leading lawyer and a former provincial minister, said.
Pak critics says new Islamic law in Swat Valley will encourage insurgents
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
