A CONTROVERSIAL peace deal with the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley came under intense pressure yesterday as the army continued its assault on guerrilla hideouts in a nearby district, bringing the reported death toll to almost 50 after two days of fighting.
Thousands of villagers fled Lower Dir, a strategically important district along the Afghan border, as army helicopter gunships clattered overhead and artillery boomed across the hills.
A spokesman for Sufi Muhammad, a 78-year-old jihadi cleric who helped broker the February peace agreement between the government and the Taliban, announced he was suspending talks until the military offensive was over.
The army claimed to have killed 20 Taliban yesterday morning on top of 26 on Sunday. The Taliban claimed to have suffered just two fatalities and accused the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, of taking American “blood money”.
“He has asked [for] money from Mr Obama to kill his own nation,” Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman, said by phone from Swat. Mr Khan said the Taliban were reserving their position on the peace deal until they received a cue from Sufi Muhammad, who remained incommunicado throughout the day at his house inside the combat zone in Dir.
But Maulana Shah Doran, a Taliban commander in Swat who caused the mass closure of girls’ schools in January, urged followers to “prepare for jihad”.
The worsening situation opens up the possibility of a large-scale battle stretching across Swat and surrounding districts, which have been largely peaceful since the government and militants signed a peace pact last February.
In Islamabad, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari tried to assuage western concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
“I want to assure the world the nuclear capability of Pakistan is in safe hands,” he told reporters.
“It’s not like any little Taliban can come and press a button.”
Western fears about the stability of Pakistan peaked last week when the Taliban rampaged through Buner, a district 97km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Although the capital was never in direct danger, western allies saw the proximity of the combat as a marker of the government’s weakness in confronting the Taliban.
Under the terms of the February peace accord, the Taliban were supposed to lay down arms in return for the imposition of sharia law in Malakand, a vast area covering one-third of the North West Frontier province. Instead, the militants used Swat to launch into districts such as Dir and Buner.
“The more they carry out operations, the more we will expand across Pakistan,” said Mr Khan.
"God willing, one day we will touch its last boundary." – ( Guardianservice)