Pakistan Cleric Says Islamic Law in Swat Gives Taliban Immunity

ISLAMABAD-Pakistan's imposition of Islamic law in a cease-fire deal to blunt a gathering Taliban rebellion will protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution, a hardline cleric who mediated the deal said Tuesday.The assertion highlights the dilemma facing Pakistan's beleaguered government as it seeks to halt 18 months of bloodletting in the Swat Valley while convincing the U.S. and other foreign sponsors that it is not capitulating to allies of Al Qaeda. President Asif Ali Zardari approved plans Monday to introduce Islamic law, or Sharia, in a large mountainous portion of the Northwest Frontier Province under mounting domestic pressure on his pro-Western government. Parts of the region, including Swat, are less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.Defenders of the deal argue it will drain public support for extremists who have hijacked long-standing calls in Swat for reform of Pakistan's snail-paced justice system.But critics worry that it rewards hard-liners who have beheaded political opponents and burned scores of schools for girls in the name of Islam-and that it will encourage similar demands in other parts of the nuclear-armed country. Militants in Swat declared a cease-fire in February after the provincial government agreed to introduce Islamic law in the surrounding Malakand division of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a largely conservative region which stretches north along the Afghan border for hundreds of miles.The measure was part of a peace deal brokered by Sufi Muhammad, a white-bearded cleric who led tens of thousands to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but later renounced violence.The terms of the agreement remain murky, fueling concern that it cedes effective control over the region to the private army of Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, the cleric's son-in-law. Officials have said radical groups allied with Al Qaeda have helped fight security forces in Swat.Asked Tuesday in a television interview if the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about Fazlullah or his followers, Muhammad said they could not."We intend to bury the past," Muhammad told the ARY channel, sitting off-screen because he considers photographic or TV images to be against Islam. "Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace."
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