ANI Islamabad, Apr. 15 (ANI): Pakistani's Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their struggle 'to new areas', a militant spokesman said today.
'Sharia doesn't permit us to lay down arms,' Muslim Khan said by telephone. 'If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it's out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms.'
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, signed a regulation on Monday imposing sharia law in the Swat valley to end Taliban violence. The strategy of appeasement has alarmed US officials, while critics say the government has demonstrated a lack of capacity and will to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.
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But a Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the scenic valley, a one-time tourist destination 125 km northwest of Islamabad, said they would be keeping their guns. He said "When we achieve our goal at one place, there are other reas where we need to struggle for it."
Judging by the rest of the article, they are making their intentions and end game clear:
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/86196Related editorial:
Divine Logic Dawn.com’s Huma Yusuf argues that we shouldn’t forget the past just because Sufi Mohammad wants us to.
Now that the Nizam-i-Adl regulation has been passed, women in Swat can be punished for emerging from behind the veil. Drug addicts and bribe takers will be maligned through robust campaigns while prostitutes and pimps are to be expelled from the valley. The sale of CDs will be restricted and hoarders will be exposed and reprimanded.
Even corrupt police officers will be checked by the ever vigilant members of the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM). In other words, all manner of minor transgressors and petty criminals who offend right-wing, religious sensibilities will be dragged to qazi courts in the name of justice.
But Taliban militants who have blown up girls’ schools, kidnapped security and media personnel, and beheaded innocents get off scot-free. On Tuesday, TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad claimed that the new regulation would protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution. According to an article in Dawn:
Asked on Tuesday in a television interview whether the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about Mullah Fazlullah or his followers, Sufi Mohammad said they could not. ‘We intend to bury the past,’ the TNSM chief told a private television channel, sitting off-screen. ‘Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace.’ Read more (with embedded links):
http://dawntravelshow.com/dblog/2009/04/15/divine-logic/