| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Parties re-evaluate Swat deal |
| 2009-04-25 |
| [ADN Kronos] An All Parties' Conference was being held on Friday in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the North West Frontier Province, to discuss the Swat peace deal under which militants agreed to lay down their arms in exchange for the implementation of Islamic (Sharia) law in the Swat valley and the surrounding Malakand division. According to sources, the meeting discussed the Taliban incursions beyond Malakand and the future course of action if the Taliban refuse to disarm and continue their offensive into districts adjoining Swat. After the recent Taliban incursions into Buner, a backlash to the Swat peace deal is unfolding across NWFP province and the rest of the country, especially among its political leadership. Islamic tribal leaders had threatened to pull out the peace deal unless Sharia law was rapidly implemented. The United States expressed extreme concern on Thursday about advances by the Taliban in Pakistan and said the issue was taking up a significant amount of president Barack Obama's time. On Wednesday, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned in extremely strong language that Pakistan, a key US anti-terror ally, was 'basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists' with an agreement permitting Sharia law in the Swat valley. The meeting of Pakistan's various political parties is important as it was preceded by a high level meeting late on Thursday between the NWFP governor, its chief minister and high ranking army officials. The possibility of restarting the military offensive against the emboldened Taliban was also discussed during the meeting, sources added. The historic Swat peace deal was signed in February between the NWFP government and Taliban-led militants. It brought to an end two years of bloodletting in which hundreds of people died and tens of thousands fled their homes. Once one of Pakistan's most popular holiday destinations, the Swat valley came under Taliban control after an insurgency began there in 2007 following the siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque in which over 100 people died. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Sweetheart deals like that are like nuclear waste: hard to get rid of. The Swat deal did nothing but indulge Taliban extremism. |
| Posted by: Jans Wittlesbach2039 2009-04-25 08:53 |