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Pakistan surrender to Swat mullahs – worldwide concern |
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Pakistan’s agreement to impose the Sharia (Islamic law) in parts of the North-West Frontier province (NWFP) to appease Maulana Fazlullah, commander of Taliban forces in Swat, whose fighters control much of the Valley, is sign of its desperation to bring peace where even the might of its military has failed to rein in the terrorists.
The Swat Valley was a popular tourist spot till recently but has fallen to the Tehrik-e-Taliban – the collective of militias that now threatens to overrun Pakistan. Mullah Fazlullah has imposed a hard, fundamentalist regime. The valley has of late seen the most vicious implementation of the Taliban’s fiats. Girls have been forbidden from attending schools, school buildings have been set on fire, dozens of people have been beheaded and parents of young girls are forced to marry their daughters to militants.
The climbdown is, however, unlikely to win the US nod because this will encourage the Islamic militants in the tribal belt in western Pakistan bordering Afghanistan to sue for similar bargains.
Further, even if a ceasefire were to be strengthened as a result of the peace agreement, great security dangers would remain. A ceasefire would be simply an opportunity for the militants to regroup. The deal is thus a perilous precedent that runs counter to US demands for a stepped up offensive. It is a high-risk and questionable strategy to contain the spreading clout of the Taliban in the NWFP. Attempts to find peace through surrender to militants can easily backfire.
The agreement signed by the NWFP Government with the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah-e- Mohammadi. The agreement signed by Sufi Mohammad, who is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, abrogates the legislation that runs counter to Islamic law and envisages the setting up of Islamic courts within six months in the troubled region and cessation of fighting in the Swat Valley where federal forces have been losing ground to Taliban fighters. The introduction of the Sharia can lead to the shutting down of the modern criminal jurisprudence system in the region where the Taliban is growing militarily stronger by the day. The compromise not only sets a disquieting precedent, but, against the background of the last peace deal having fizzled out. it is unlikely that the agreement will help isolate sections of the militants. To assume that the Pakistani military would be willing or able to regain lost ground after the truce would be dangerous. It was precisely in this way that the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan commenced in 1994, with the people weary of constant warfare welcoming it as the bringer of a tenuous peace and finding it too late that it was riding a tiger.
That Taliban militants are too deeply and firmly entrenched in the region was acknowledged by President Zardari last week when he said in an interview , the Taliban had entrenched themselves in large parts of Pakistan and pose the threat of take over of the country. “We are fighting for the survival of Pakistan,” he said. His admission that the Taliban are taking over the country seems like a powerless Head of State’s desperate gambit to impel US action.
Some analysts believe that it is a tactical retreat so that another front can be opened against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] in Waziristan. A far more troubling possibility, however, is that some Generals are giving the Taliban breathing space, still believing it as an asset to be controlled even if it means compromising the integrity of the Pakistani State.
New Delhi has been unequivocal in its condemnation of the truce and NATO and the US have expressed misgivings as well. Whatever may be Pakistan’s compulsions, there is no doubt that the Taliban-inspired militancy is crossing the redline beyond which the international community will have no option but to act.
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