Pakistan on its knees in front of Taliban

Pakistan Praises Taliban Truce, U.S. Warns of Threat (Update1) 

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By Ed Johnson and Khalid Qayum

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s prime minister welcomed a peace accord with Taliban militants that will see Islamic law declared in a former tourist destination northwest of Islamabad, as the U.S. warned of the growing threat from extremists.

The agreement, which aims to end 20 months of fighting in the Swat Valley, will be “beneficial for the country,” Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters in the capital yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Militants loyal to cleric Maulana Fazlullah have waged a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Swat, which lies 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Extremists have extended their grip on the area since a peace accord collapsed in July, destroying more than 180 schools, banning education for girls and beheading local government officials.

Pakistan, the U.S. and India “all face an enemy which poses direct threats to our leadership, our capitals and our people,” U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooketold reporters yesterday in New Delhi, adding Taliban fighters have seized broader swaths of Pakistani territory.

President Barack Obama is pressing Pakistan to root out militants and sent Holbrooke to the region to review U.S. strategy for combating the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan says it’s doing all it can against the guerrillas and is trying to combat extremism through political and economic development of the North West Frontier Province and other tribal areas, as well as the controlled use of military force.

Tribal Areas

The Bush administration was critical of previous peace accords in tribal areas, saying they led to a rise in cross- border attacks on international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview broadcast at the weekend that militants had exploited the weakness of the army and that the country was “in denial” about the threat posed by the Taliban.

The Islamist group has a presence in “huge amounts of land” in Pakistan, Zardari said in an interview on CBS television’s “60 Minutes” show. “Everyone was in denial that they’re weak and they won’t be able to take over, they won’t be able to give us a challenge.”

Pakistan’s army “is not really equipped to fight a domestic insurgency,” said Samina Yasmeen, a South Asia specialist at the University of Western Australia. Even though it has received counterterrorism training and support from the U.S., “it is still essentially designed to fight on the borders with India,” she added.

“Pakistan’s government is definitely weak at the moment,” Yasmeen said by telephone. “Everything points to the fact that it is not able to control the militants.”

Once the Swat peace accord is implemented, the army will be called back, Gilani said yesterday.

Security forces will respond only if attacked by militants, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, chief minister of the North West Frontier Province, which governs the valley, said yesterday. All non- Islamic laws in the area will be abolished, he added.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney atejohnson28@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net