|
MPs visit Swat to pay obeisance to Sufi Mohammad
 (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Members of Pakistan's federal and provincial parliaments went to the Swat valley in the country's northwest on Wednesday after a historic agreement endorsing Sharia law restored peace in the troubled district this week. The peace deal reached with local leader Sufi Mohammad on Monday ended two years of fierce conflict in which at least 1,700 government soldiers and hundreds of civilians were killed and 600,000 people were displaced.Sufi Mohammad, founder of Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (Movement for the enforcement of Islamic laws) was also due to meet his son-in-law and local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah in the Matta area of Swat. The Taliban this week announced a ten-day ceasefire which is now likely to be extended for an indefinite period following the peace deal and agreement on an Islamic judicial system. The unilateral ceasefire was immediately observed by security forces who lifted their curfew throughout Swat. On Tuesday, for the first time schools were opened across Swat and Pakistani newspapers published photographs of girls attending school without any problems. The Taliban's spokesperson in Swat, Muslim Khan, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on a recent visit to the valley that the Taliban had only targeted those schools where security forces had set up bunkers. He said the Taliban did not have a problem with education: the Swat valley has the highest literacy rate in surrounding North West Frontier Province. On Tuesday Mohammad was greeted by thousands of people when he visited a local cricket stadium. Pakistan's largest Urdu daily Jang reported that even security officials joined the crowd and greeted Mohammad, in his first public appearance since his release last year from the jail. Posted by: Fred 2009-02-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=262893 |