US voices 'concern' over Pakistan's truce deal

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-20 09:45

WASHINGTON – The United States on Thursday expressed concern to Pakistan's President Ali Zardari over an agreement that allows the imposition of Sharia law in a region controlled by Taliban militants.

US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke addresses media representatives after his meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on February 16, 2009. [Agencies]

"I talked to President Zardari of Pakistan on the phone about two hours ago and I expressed to him the same kind of concern you have just stated to me," US envoy Richard Holbrooke told CNN television in an interview.

"It is hard to understand this deal in Swat," in the country's northwest, said Holbrooke, who returned this week from a regional tour that included visits to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

The agreement this week in Pakistan's Malakand area, which includes the Swat valley, has been widely seen as a government concession to Taliban Islamic militants to secure a ceasefire.

"I am concerned, and I know Secretary (Hillary) Clinton is, and the president is, that this deal, which is portrayed in the press as a truce, does not turn into a surrender," Holbrooke said.

"President Zardari has assured us it is not the case."

The Pakistan president has described the deal as "an interim arrangement," said the US diplomat.

"He does not disagree that people who are running Swat now are murderers, thugs and militants and they pose a danger not only to Pakistan but to the US as well."

Last year, Pakistani forces launched an offensive to recapture the Swat valley from Taliban forces but the area remains restive.

Pakistan has hailed the agreement as the best way to quell a bloody insurgency in the violence-wracked northwest, but Islamist hardliners have yet to disarm and it has provoked alarm in NATO as well as in neighbouring Afghanistan and India.

Islamists have vowed to disarm once Islamic justice is established.

Monday's deal followed talks between ministers in the troubled North West Frontier Province and a local leader, Soofi Mohammad.

The pro-Taliban cleric vowed Wednesday to restore calm to the Swat valley, leading thousands of men in a march for peace after securing the controversial deal.

Mohammad was jailed in Pakistan for six years after returning from Afghanistan where he led thousands of supporters to fight against US-led troops who toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.