Muslim 'peace deal' preacher leads Taliban march

A hard-line Muslim cleric led a peace march in Pakistan’s Taliban stronghold of the Swat Valley today aimed at persuading them to accept a government peace deal.

Nato and Britain raised concerns about the scheme, which imposes Islamic law and suspends a military offensive in the one-time tourist haven.

Nato, which has 55,000 troops across the border in Afghanistan, warned the deal risked giving extremists a “safe haven”.

But the US reacted cautiously, with the State Department saying it was still trying to understand Pakistan’s strategy.

The regional government in Pakistan’s north-west struck the deal on Monday with Sufi Muhammad, an ageing pro-Taliban cleric who is father-in-law to Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.

Muhammad agreed to go talk to Fazlullah in return for the pledge to introduce Islamic law in the valley, where militants have thrown out the police, beheaded political opponents and burned scores of schools for girls.

Muhammad and his supporters, carrying black and white flags representing the Taliban and peace, marched through Swat’s main city of Mingora as jubilant residents chanted “God is great! We want peace!”

Fighting between security forces and militants has killed hundreds of people in Swat over the past year, while up to a third of the valley’s 1.5 million people have fled. Although many are desperate for calm, critics warned the deal could embolden militants.

The truce “is certainly reason for concern,” a Nato spokesman said. “We should all be concerned by a situation in which extremists would have a safe haven.”

A statement from the British High Commission in Islamabad said: “Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat’s problems.”

“We need to be confident that they will end violence – not create space for further violence.”

Pakistan’s government insists the deal is not a concession, but fulfils long-standing demands of residents in Swat and surrounding areas for a more efficient justice system.

The main changes involve already existing regulations that were never enforced, for instance, allowing religious scholars to advise judges, officials said. There are no publicised plans to ban girls from schooling, as many hard-line Taliban would want.

Pakistan’s rival India, still angry over the November attacks in Mumbai blamed on Pakistani militants, reacted to the Swat deal by describing the Taliban as terrorists.

The muted US response was a sign of an Obama administration wary about weakening an already fragile Pakistani government that Washington needs to help fight Islamic militants using Pakistan to stage attacks on US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Muhammad was detained in 2002 after he sent thousands of volunteers to fight the US in Afghanistan, but Pakistan freed him last year after he agreed to renounce violence. It is unclear how much influence he has over Fazlullah or exactly where and when they would meet.

A similar deal in Swat last year collapsed in a few months and was blamed for giving insurgents time to regroup.

Some 2,000 militants are believed to operate in the valley and in defiance of some 10,000 paramilitary and army troops have already set up their own courts, meting out punishments in line with an exceptionally harsh brand of Islamic law.