Pakistan Taliban in Indefinite Ceasefire

Maulana Fazlullah released seven detained security personnel and promised to free the others soon.

"Our Shura council, after a detailed discussion, has decided to declare a ceasefire for an indefinite period and release the detailed security personnel as a goodwill gesture," Haji Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat (SST), told IslamOnline.net.

Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Chief Minister of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), signed on Sunday, February 16, an agreement with Sufi Mohammad, leader of the main faction of the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shari`ah Mohammadi (TNSM), on enforcement of Shari`ah.

As part of the deal, Mohammad, a renowned and popular scholar and TSNM founder, pledged to persuade militants led by his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah to shun militancy.

Maulana Fazlullah, commonly known as Maulana Radio because of his FM radio station, has been battling government troops for the implementation of Shari`ah.

He had had announced a ten-day truce in Swat, a tourist valley once known as the Switzerland of Pakistan, top during Sufi Mohammad's negotiations with the government.

"We are serious in negotiations (with the government). We want peace here more than anyone else because this is our land," maintains Muslim Khan.

He vowed that no government property or officials would be attacked by his group.

Peace Agenda

Sufi Mohammad is proposing a ten-point peace agenda for the government and local Taliban.

Under a ten-point blueprint proposed by Sufi Mohammad, government forces and Taliban militants should release each others’ prisoners.

Taliban militants are still holding 25 government officials as hostages.

They should surrender arms, vacate the check posts set up in and around Swat and should not frisk people in the name of security.

Taliban should also stop interfering in government affairs.

A close aide to Sufi Mohammad, who has been involved in mediation, says Maulana Fazlullah has almost agreed to his father-in-law’s ten-point peace agenda.

"He will Inshaullah today announce the release of the remaining hostages and issue directives to his followers to vacate all the check posts, stop moving with arms, stop harassing people in the name of security and not to interfere in government affairs," the aide told IOL requesting anonymity.

Haji Khan, SST spokesman, declined to confirm or deny the report.

"The Shura meeting is still continuing and some important decisions will be announced by Maulana Fazlullah this evening," he said, refusing to elaborate on possible announcements.

"We are satisfied by the efforts being made by Maulana Sufi Mohammad for the enforcement of Shari`ah and restoration of peace."

Sources say that Sufi Mohammad’s ten-point peace agenda has the full backing of the government.

"Sufi Mohammad had consulted the government and presumably Taliban too, on his ten-point agenda," a senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), the ruling party in NWFP, told IOL.

"The government has given him the go-ahead."

Challenge

Many fear a deadlock between the Taliban militants and the government over the issue of security forces' withdrawal.

"Taliban is pressing for an immediate withdrawal of security forces, while the government insists that it would be after complete normalcy returned to Swat," a government official told IOL.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman has insisted that an immediate withdrawal of the army troops was not part of the peace deal.

"The army will remain in the valley until a complete normalcy is prevailed. This is not part of deal tat army will be withdrawn."

However, the ANP leader hopes that the issue will be resolved once the process gets through.

"Yes, this is an issue, but I am sure it will not turn out to be a stalemate," he believes.

"Once, the process is through and the two sides sit on the table there will be some give and take. Inshaullah, this will also be resolved."