A HARD-LINE cleric who negotiated a peace accord that halted fighting between the Taleban and security forces in part of north-west Pakistan has said he is leaving the region in protest at the government's failure to impose Islamic law.
The announcement casts serious doubt on the durability of a ceasefire in the Swat valley that Western officials worry will create another sanctuary for allies of al-Qaeda responsible for a rising tide of violence in the nuclear-armed country.
Impo
sing Islamic law in Swat, a one-time tourist haven, was the key plank of an accord worked out in February between the provincial government and Sufi Muhammad, a cleric who once led thousands of volunteers to fight Nato and US forces in Afghanistan but has since renounced violence.
Thanks in part to his mediation, the agreement ended 18 months of terror and bloody clashes that had left hundreds dead and forced up to one-third of the previously prosperous valley's 1.5 million residents to flee.
But the militants have retained their arms and this week pushed into a neighbouring area just 60 miles north west of Islamabad, where they fought deadly gunbattles with villagers and police.
President Asif Ali Zardari has said he will only sign an order introducing Islamic law in the region once peace has been restored – without saying how that would be determined.
Muhammad, who had been camped out in the valley's main town of Mingora with hundreds of black-turbaned supporters, said they were leaving to protest Mr Zardari's "negative attitude".
"From now on, President Zardari will be responsible for any situation in Swat."
