OMEN
02-16-2009, 10:12 PM
Pakistan has agreed to introduce Sharia law in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas in the northwest of the country.
The move is likely to draw criticism from the US and other Western powers fearful that Pakistan is playing into the hands of religious conservatives who sympathise with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The agreement was reached at talks between Islamists and officials of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government in Peshawar.
Taliban militants in Swat, once a tourist destination, called a 10-day ceasefire the night before the talks, and on Saturday released a Chinese engineer kidnapped five months earlier as a gesture of goodwill.
Announcing the decision to bring back Islamic law, a spokesman said NWFP President Asif Ali Zardari had already agreed in principle to this concession to religious conservatives of the region.
Until two years ago, Swat was a jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, frequented by foreign and local holidaymakers escaping to the mountains for skiing in winter or cooler climes in the punishing heat of summer.
But the northwest region descended into chaos after radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah embarked on a campaign to enforce Sharia law, prompting thousands of people to flee and suffocating day-to-day life.
Pakistan, under massive Western pressure to clamp down on extremists, has pressed military offensives in an attempt to flush out the militants and wrest back control of Swat, which locals say has fallen to the insurgents.
Pakistan has long hoped that negotiations with the Islamists can restore peace to the violence-torn regions.
Elsewhere, a suspected US missile strike has destroyed an Afghan Taliban camp and killed 22 in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram.
RTE
The move is likely to draw criticism from the US and other Western powers fearful that Pakistan is playing into the hands of religious conservatives who sympathise with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The agreement was reached at talks between Islamists and officials of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government in Peshawar.
Taliban militants in Swat, once a tourist destination, called a 10-day ceasefire the night before the talks, and on Saturday released a Chinese engineer kidnapped five months earlier as a gesture of goodwill.
Announcing the decision to bring back Islamic law, a spokesman said NWFP President Asif Ali Zardari had already agreed in principle to this concession to religious conservatives of the region.
Until two years ago, Swat was a jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, frequented by foreign and local holidaymakers escaping to the mountains for skiing in winter or cooler climes in the punishing heat of summer.
But the northwest region descended into chaos after radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah embarked on a campaign to enforce Sharia law, prompting thousands of people to flee and suffocating day-to-day life.
Pakistan, under massive Western pressure to clamp down on extremists, has pressed military offensives in an attempt to flush out the militants and wrest back control of Swat, which locals say has fallen to the insurgents.
Pakistan has long hoped that negotiations with the Islamists can restore peace to the violence-torn regions.
Elsewhere, a suspected US missile strike has destroyed an Afghan Taliban camp and killed 22 in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Kurram.
RTE