Surrender. "Pakistani authorities, militants agree peace deal for insurgency-torn valley," from The Associated Press, May 21 :
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan's new government signed a peace deal Wednesday with Islamic militants in a valley of northwestern Pakistan, in a process that Western officials worry could take the pressure off Taliban and al-Qaida hardliners.The agreement covers Swat, a former tourist destination 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the capital, Islamabad, where followers of a fundamentalist cleric have been battling security forces for almost a year.
But in a sign that the accord could be tough to enforce, suspected militants shot dead a policeman at a checkpoint in the valley on Tuesday, the army said.
The 15-point plan was announced Wednesday after the latest in a series of negotiations between the two sides in the regional capital, Peshawar.
Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in the government of North West Frontier Province, said the militants agreed to recognize the government's authority, halt suicide and bomb attacks and hand over any foreign militants in the area.
In return, the government will release an unspecified number of prisoners and make limited concessions on the demands of the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, for the imposition of Islamic law in the region, he said.
Bilour also said the army would withdraw "gradually" from the area. [...]
Information Minister Sherry Rehman insisted Wednesday that the government was "negotiating with peaceful representative groups, not with terrorists."
But Western officials have expressed concern that any deals would be poorly enforced and would simply allow Taliban and al-Qaida militants to execute more attacks in Afghanistan and plot terror strikes in the West.
Pakistani officials "say they don't want to give free space to extremist elements ... But I think this is something we're going to have to watch very carefully," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told senators in Washington on Tuesday....
One of the most screwed up countries in the world. These are the people we let into the west and other democracies and then we see the same thing happening on our home soil that is happening in Pakistan. Constant chaos, violence, poverty, kidnapping, killing of their own family members the women if they date some non Muslim. Just plain savages.
Wow - A failed state wih nuclear weapons. Hang onto your hats!
A truce, any truce or cessation of hostilities with an islamist or jihadi is not worth spit,
In fact it is counterproductive
It lulls one into thinking the fighting is over, when in truth , it has just begun.
In fact the recipe for success against a jihadi is upon any truce, start rearming and strategizing right away and hope the pukes breach the truce sooner rather than later.
What a dishonourable pack of liars.
"A former tourist destination"
Next time you hear about how poor the Muslim world is think of this. How many Muslim countries would be truly prosperous if only they were a little less xenophobic?
The Middle East, the trade routes between Europe and India that were taken by Marco Polo, all of these are rich in history and all of them are being lost to humanity. Even Mecca's pre-Islamic history has been destroyed.
But Western officials have expressed concern that any deals would be poorly enforced and would simply allow Taliban and al-Qaida militants to execute more attacks in Afghanistan and plot terror strikes in the West.
I nominate this for "Well Duh" statement of the year. We saw this with the last "truce" in Waziristan.
"-The agreement covers Swat..." from the article
What does swat stand for again? I know the troll from Lahore told us some time ago, but I don't remember... something about "Allah doesn't swap spit" I think...
"Bilour also said the army would withdraw "gradually" from the area.
A Pakistani army gradual withdrawal usually moves pretty doggone fast.
Give these People a Reservation. Build a fence around it and do not let anyone off. Let them live off the fat of the land until they cannot stand it anymore. A humanitarian crises that actually does the World some good. Let them Jihad amongst themselves to their hearts content. When we find like minded individuals outside the Reservation. we can help them along their merry way to it. Where they may Jihad away the days. May their wait for Paradise be short on their Heels.
This is what Muslims call peace. It is a FORCED "peace". They got what the wanted, Sharia. A victory for them, a loss for the rest of the world.
"What does swat stand for again?"
Swat is a district in the north of the NWFP province of Pakistan. It is not one of the tribal areas (FATA). The Pak Govt is negotiating simultaneously with a whole bunch of jihadi groups, so there seems to be some confusion here. The Swat agreement has nothing to do with Beitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, except perhaps as a precedent for more sellouts.
So the Paki national government has, for all intents & purposes, admitted that someone else rules in these tribal lands? (How could they conclude an agreement with themselves?)
LET THE BOMBINGS BEGIN!!! "Hot pursuit" is now allowed! Any manpower or arms shipments will be paid back in kind. 1400 years of history has shown the ONLY effective "negotiation" with a jihadi is "one in the x-ring"! No more artifical excuses of "not wanting to offend our ally, in the WOT". Our "ally" just ceded those territories to the enemy!
The really dangerous thing here: the Taliban now have another state within a state from which to operate.
And it was given to them, like so many Islamic political advances throughout history, by a greedy politician looking to gain a temporal political advantage.
"For others the deal reflects a goal sought by Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto and acting leader of her party, namely to get protection in what is for him a difficult legal and political phase in his career in exchange for granting Taliban militias their independence."