The NWFP government has approached the Mullah Fazlullah-led militant group to seek its help in identifying groups still pursuing violence and opposing the government's peace efforts in the district, a provincial minister said on Saturday, adding that the government might sign a peace agreement with these groups if complete peace in the Swat Valley could thus be guaranteed.'We have asked the Taliban to either help us or let us try to contact these groups and strike a similar deal with them by ourselves,' he said on the condition of anonymity. Mullah Fazlullah's group, which signed a peace agreement with the NWFP government on May 21, is challenged by other militant groups in Swat district.
The minister said the government had taken Fazlullah's group into confidence over possible direct contacts with other militant groups. 'We did so because we did not want to create a misunderstanding with Fazlullah's group, who might object if we try to hold talks with other militant groups by ourselves,' the minister added.
'There are other groups than the one led by Fazlullah,' confirmed a senior government official monitoring law and order at a summer resort here. 'These groups, we believe, continue to carry out attacks,' he said, asking not to be named. 'Some of these groups are even opposing the peace deal between the government and Fazlullah's group,' said the official.
ANP denies: ANP NWFP president and the government's peace envoy, Afrasiab Khattak, however denied that the provincial government was considering more peace deals with other groups operating in the militancy-plagued district. Also on Saturday, local leaders of the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) of Sufi Muhammad met the Malakand district co-ordination officer. Talking to journalists, the leaders said they had expelled Mullah Fazlullah from their movement for his 'disobedience'. They said the DCO was asked to remove police check posts. The TNSM leaders said the government had assured them of implementation of Shariah in Malakand in the coming three months.