Shariah deal signed with Swat militants

PESHAWAR: Pakistan yesterday signed a deal with hardliners recognizing the rule of Shariah law in the northwest Swat valley in a bid to end violence in the troubled region.
The agreement came as a suspected US missile strike destroyed an Afghan Taliban camp, killing 26 people in the tribal area of Kurram, security officials said.
The Shariah deal, widely seen as a government concession to militants, followed talks between ministers in the troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and a local militant leader, Sufi Mohamed, on formalizing the implementation of Islamic law.
The agreement will cover Pakistan’s Malakand area, one of the districts of NWFP, which includes the Swat valley and is home to around 3mn of the estimated 20mn people who live in the northwest province.
“All laws against Shariah will be abolished and Shariah will be enforced under this justice system,” provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters in the regional capital Peshawar.
“The implementation of this agreement will be done with the establishment of peace in the region when the writ of the government is restored,” said a copy of the deal, signed by ministers and Maulana Mohamed Alam, Sufi’s deputy.
The Islamists vowed to disarm once Islamic justice was established.
“We are satisfied. When Shariah is implemented practically, people will lay down their arms,” said Mohamed Iqbal Khan, a senior follower of Mohamed.
“We will soon convene a meeting of our shura (consultative council) after which Sufi Mohamed will visit Swat and convince the Taliban there to disarm,” Khan added.
Until two years ago, Swat was a jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, frequented by foreign and local holidaymakers.
But the region descended into chaos after radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah embarked on a violent campaign to enforce Taliban-style Shariah law, prompting tens of thousands to flee and suffocating day-to-day life.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said on Sunday that a 10-day ceasefire, announced as a “goodwill gesture,” could become permanent if a deal were signed.
Pakistan, under massive Western pressure to clamp down on extremists, has deployed its poorly equipped military to try to flush out the militants and wrest back control of Swat.
But despite the military campaign, the government believes negotiations are the best hope of restoring peace, although past deals have collapsed. An agreement signed with pro-Taliban militants in Swat last May unraveled rapidly.
The lawless tribal areas in northwest Pakistan have been wracked by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda rebels sought refuge in the region after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.