The government settles with an Islamic terrorist, and allows sharia in the north
Peshawar (AsiaNews) - An agreement to bring peace back to the tribal areas of Pakistan, but by using sharia as the common thread for local politics. This is the agreement signed yesterday by the provincial government of the North-West Frontier, which has released Maulana Sufi Muhammad - leader of the outlaw militants of Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TRISM) - in exchange for a cease-fire in the areas controlled by the Islamic militias.
The Pakistani police had stopped Muhammad in November of 2001, while he was crossing the border of Afghanistan to organise the "anti-American resistance". In 2002, the judges had condemned him to 10 years in prison. Now, with the peace agreement, Islamabad has withdrawn the accusations against the guerilla leader and has dissolved the rest of his sentence. Also according to the agreement his organisation, banned in 2002, will "continue its struggle for the enforcement of sharia law (Islamic law) through peaceful means".
The agreement, made public yesterday evening by the provincial government, condemns terrorism as "against Islam and moral principles and a violation of human rights, because it kills innocent people and attacks the foundations of democracy", but expresses "confidence in the good faith of the TRISM, which respects the government of Pakistan and state institutions. If this respect should fail, we are ready to use any means".
Speaking to journalists, Muhammad says: "The government has taken the right decision and it will help in restoration of durable peace in the region. Disputes must be resolved through dialogue". In his part of the agreement, the Islamic leader writes, in fact, that "the TRISM has no links with those elements involved in attacks on the Army, police and other security officials. Soldiers, policemen and other government officials are our brothers and attacks on them are against Islamic teachings".
But some analysts are afraid that this agreement is just a decoy, and are raising the alarm: the release of the guerilla leader, one of the conditions imposed for the liberation of the Pakistani ambassador in Afghanistan, opens the way to the Talibanisation of Pakistan, beginning with precisely those tribal areas that he now says he wants to pacify.
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15/03/2018 09:17
