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Pakistan makes peace with pro-Taliban group

Militant leader freed

AP, Peshawar
Pakistan freed a pro-Thliban cleric and quickly signed an accord with his hardline group Monday, the first major step by the new government to talk peace with Islamic militants and break with President Pervez Musharraf's policy of using force.
The day's developments began with the release of Sufi Muhammad, who is believed in his 70s, after more than five years in custody following his dispatch of thousands of followers to fight in Afghanistan.
A few hours later, the government of North West Frontier Province said Muhammad s group signed a pact renouncing violence in return for being allowed to peacefully campaign for Islamic law. Security forces have the right to "act against" any extremists who attack the government.
Analysts cautioned it would take time to judge the new approach, noting Musharraf also struck truces with some groups that US officials have complained gave Pakistani militants as well as Taliban anil al Qaeda fighters a chance to build up their stiength.
The anti-government sentiments in tire region affected by Monday's deal are seen as less intractable than those held by Taliban sympathizers in the tribal regions of Waziristan, where US officials believe Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are hiding.
Provincial government spokes-
man l ai idullah Khan said the pact covers the Swat Valley and neighbouring districts in this area along the Afghan frontier.
Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Muhammad's son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, whose supporters battled security forces for control of the SwatValley last year, said the fighters allied with the wanted militant would not cease their battle
"We welcome the release of Sufi Muhammad, but we will only lay down arms when the government would enforce Shariah," or Islamic law, Khan said.
Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said the deal with Muhammad demonstrated the new government’s willingness to try dialogue with militants and
could increase pressure on Fazlullah and others to lay down their arms.
"But it's a long way before you can make any judgment as to whether this is a success," he said, citing the previous failed peace efforts with pro- Taliban militants.
"We have to see... to what extent both parties are going to abide by the agreement and whether the militants use this period to consol!• date," he said.
Pakistan's national government, led by the party of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, wants to use dialogue and development to curb militancy in the tribal region. The North West Frontier provincial government, which is led by a Pashtun nationalist parry, has joined the effort.