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Taliban swaps official for prisoners

PHOTO: AP

FATE IN BALANCE: Girls at a private school in Mingora, capital of the troubled Swat valley in Pakistan on Monday.

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban in the North West Frontier Province area of Swat have obtained the release of two militants in return for freeing a government official they abducted on Sunday, while a hardline cleric negotiating with them on behalf of the government for a permanent ceasefire in the district says the military must withdraw and more militants must be released.

Kushal Khan, a senior official newly appointed as the district co-ordination official, was waylaid as he drove up to the main Swat town Mingora to take up his assignment.

His six bodyguards were also kidnapped, but all seven were freed late on Sunday after the provincial government released two militants.

The episode was a blow to the NWFP government’s optimism that its agreement to set up Islamic courts in a wide region of the province including Swat would help re-establish its writ in a district overrun by the Taliban.

The provincial government concluded the agreement last week with a hardline Islamist group called the Tehreek-i-Nifas-i-Sharia Mohammadi. The move has caused widespread international concern as it is seen as a virtual surrender to militancy.

In return for the Islamic courts, known as Nizam-e-Adl, the TNSM chief Sufi Mohammed has to convince the Swat Taliban to end militancy and accept the rule of the elected government.

Talks between him and the Swat Taliban, headed by Mullah Fazlullah, are under way. On Monday, the TNSM chief demanded that the military must withdraw from school buildings and mosques, and asked the government to release all Taliban militants in its custody.

For an effective peace in which the government can reassume charge of the district, the Taliban must necessarily disarm. But the TNSM appears to have set the bar much lower for the Taliban, saying only that it must refrain from an “open display of arms” and not indulge in violent activities. It also asked the Taliban not to interfere in the work of the local administration.

The temporary truce declared by the Swat Taliban last week will end on Wednesday, with the government hoping that Sufi Mohammed can reach an agreement with them for a “permanent” ceasefire before then. The government has already declared a ceasefire from its side, pledging that the military will not initiate any operations and will act only in self-defence.

“The government has given orders to hold back fire, and not to initiate any military operation. The military will follow these orders,” said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.

He said fear of causing collateral damage among civilians had held the military back from an all-out operation to retake Swat from the Taliban.

It is yet unclear if any agreement reached between Sufi Mohammed and the Taliban will include the reopening of girls’ schools. With the temporary truce holding, the administration reopened many schools in the district on Monday, including girls’ schools, but attendance was reported to be thin. On Sunday, the Swat Taliban leader announced on his illegal radio that girls would be allowed to write their examinations.

In a related development that is also sure to raise concerns, the NWFP government announced that it was distributing guns to villagers in the province to protect themselves against militants.

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