By Junaid Khan
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities have released 12 Taliban militants in a bid to consolidate a pact struck last month with Islamists in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, a senior government official said Sunday.
Their release is likely to deepen concerns among Western countries which say the policy of making pacts with Islamists is tantamount to appeasement and emboldens the militants.
U.S. officials fear the deal in Swat may create another safe haven for al Qaeda and the Taliban on Pakistani soil.
The Taliban militants were released Saturday night after talks between North West Frontier Province (NWFP) authorities and representatives of the Taliban and the Islamists, officials said.
"It was one of the demands of the Taliban. It was a goodwill gesture. We have fulfilled it and we hope now they will play their part for peace," Syed Mohammad Javed, Commissioner of Swat, told Reuters.
The Pakistani government, already facing economic crisis, is also confronting a growing tide of militancy flowing out of the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border and into cities and towns, mainly in North West Frontier.
Sunday, officials said 10 policemen had been killed in a clash with the Taliban in the Mohmand tribal region on the Afghan border late Saturday.
A government official and three policemen were abducted by the militants after the clash and their decapitated bodies were found early Sunday, officials said.
SHARIA LAW
President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed his government will not negotiate with Taliban militants but NWFP authorities sealed the pact with an influential cleric in Swat, Maulana Sufi Mohammad.
They agreed to enforce Islamic sharia law in the region in the hope that Mohammad would be able to rein in the militants.
Mohammad this month called on the government and the Taliban to release each other's prisoners by March 10. The militants released seven government officials and soldiers last month.
Taliban militants announced a ceasefire on February 24 and Pakistani forces have also halted operations in Swat, a former tourist destination in the mountains just 130 km (90 miles) north of the capital, Islamabad.
Mohammad, an aging cleric who led violent protests by Islamists in the 1990s, has also set a deadline of March 15 for the government to enforce sharia law in the region or face protests. NWFP officials have assured him his demand will be met.
While businesses and schools have reopened in scenic Swat, critics doubt the deal will last long, saying earlier pacts were used by militants to consolidate their strength.
Authorities signed a peace agreement with the militants in May 2008. That pact failed and militants later virtually took control of the valley.
Since the latest agreement was signed, two soldiers were killed in an ambush with the militants, while several government and paramilitary officials were kidnapped and then released after Mohammad intervened.
Officials say the Swat deal is an attempt to alleviate worsening security by involving Mohammad, who has given up militancy, and that President Asif Ali Zardari would only sign off on wider use of sharia justice if peace was sustained.
Even then a softer interpretation of sharia was seen, with no special courts and with existing officials to be trained in Islamic jurisprudence, officials have said.
(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Paul Tait)
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